


Gravidity

by readridinghood



Series: Framework [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: ABO, ABO-Freeform, ABO-Humans & Weres, Alive Claudia Stilinski, Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Anal Sex, Angst, Deputy Derek, Derek/OFC - Freeform, Drama, Emotion Projection, Gay Sex, Hobby Photographer Derek, M/M, Miscarriage, Mpreg, Pack Dynamics-Freeform, Photographer Stiles, Pregnancy Alternatives Discussion, Romance, Sexual Tension, Sterek Big Bang Challenge, The Hale Pack - Freeform, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 10:10:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 47,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3484325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readridinghood/pseuds/readridinghood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Stiles can get settled back in Beacon Hills, and in the new business he’s invested in, and before Derek allows his decade-long on and off again girlfriend back into his life, barring she agree to some specific ultimatums, Stiles and Derek meet at Cora’s wedding and decide to have a one-night fling. Their lives get a lot more complicated than either of them imagined because of the night they spent together and neither of them is ready for the journey, but they’ll learn that it’s important they make it together and by doing so Stiles may find the muse he’s been missing, and Derek will have a chance to build what he’s longed to have in his life.</p><p><b>Collection:</b> <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/collections/STEREK_BIG_BANG">Sterek_Big_Bang</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you to my artist, who was so patient with me. I can't say enough how perfect her art is for this story. I am so lucky to have worked her.
> 
> (I had a lot of issues with getting my story back from my beta in time, so only some of this story is betad. Please read with caution to this fact. After I take a step back from the story, I will go over it myself for what is probably the 100th time and try to clean it up again. I really couldn't wait any longer to post this, as the date is already 1 week past. So I am sorry to those I made wait for this and I hope you enjoy this story.)

  
Thank you to my awesome artist, [ellipsisthegreat](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ellipsisthegreat) It was pleasure working with you!

[Here is the link to her art post!](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3488522)

 

 **Gravidity  
**   
Prologue

 _Nothing Good Happens After Midnight_ ~Unknown

Stiles Stilinski is of the firm belief that it’s after two a.m. when seriously crappy things occur in his life. 

He was six years-old when his mother woke him up at 2:15 in the morning, tears in her eyes and a forced serene look on her face. He’d looked at the big red numbers on his alarm clock and then to the darkness outside and asked his mother, ‘Did I sleep all day, or is it storming?’ 

She explained that he’d only been asleep a little while, that it was the middle of the night, but she needed to bring him over to Scott’s house. He loved spending the night at his best friend’s house, but when he asked if he could bring his Toy Story DVD to watch and if Mrs. McCall was going to make popcorn, his mother told him that when he got there he would be going right back to sleep. This was unacceptable to Stiles and he began to whine and complain. He refused to get dressed and tried to burrow under his bed with his blanket, away from the cold air and his mom’s chastising. She did her best to pull him out and it became a game to him to evade her. He kicked his feet away from her hands and accidentally connected his heel with her chin. That was when he heard her start to cry. 

Stiles immediately slid out from under his bed and apologized, but his mother continued to weep. She told him that she wasn’t hurt, but her tears kept falling. Stiles clambered onto her lap and hugged her tightly while promising to be good, but it didn’t make her happy. A few minutes passed where his mom just held onto him, rocking him in her arms, until she stopped. Then she explained why it was that he had to go stay at Scott’s house for the rest of the night. She said Grandma ‘Linki, as Stiles called her, was sick. She had something wrong with her heart and because of it she died and went to heaven.

When Stiles thinks of that memory, he doesn’t recall much of what happened after his mother telling him that his Grandmother died. With clarity he remembers what time it was when he first began to understand life and death.

About fifteen years ago, a little after 2 a.m., his mother was driving home from the airport. She intended to surprise Stiles and his father by arriving home early from a vacation she’d taken with some girlfriends. A drunk driver was also on the road then, the bars near the highway having just closed and sending their patrons out into the night. The drunk, who was navigating his car in front of Claudia, lost control around a sharp curve and steep incline. His vehicle spun around and careened into the small compact car Claudia drove, sending it off the incline and down into the forest preserve. 

It was luck that an Alpha had been running through the preserve near the crash site at the time and heard the accident. The Alpha used the other driver’s cell phone to call in the accident and did what they could to retrieve her from the burning wreckage. After his father arrived, at the time only a deputy, he performed CPR to try to keep his mother’s heart pumping while they waited for an ambulance. With his mom unconscious, it fell to his father to make the decision and ask the Alpha to give Stiles’ mother the bite. Her injuries began to heal even before the ambulance made it to the hospital, but her human immune system tried to fight it off, leaving her writhing in agonizing pain, whilst she was trapped in a coma for days.

Stiles hadn’t received a phone call about that, but he knew his father had gotten the call from dispatch, not even knowing at the time that it had been his wife who was injured. The harsh reality he’d faced for days, not knowing if his Mommy would live or die had been torturous. It was over the course of those days that Stiles’ Omega traits heightened far sooner than what was in the realm of normal growth for males. If it weren’t for Allison being there to help him, one year older than him, and going through many of the same changes, he would’ve never learned to harness his special nature and would’ve been sent away to a facility until he did.

Last Valentine’s Day, at 2:30 a.m. his time, only nearing midnight for Lydia’s Baltimore time zone, she called him in the early morning hours. It was a time that lovers probably still considered to be the holiday, technically still was for Lydia, but Stiles wasn’t stupid. He didn’t get his hopes up thinking she had some miraculous breakthrough and finally realized she was in love with him on the most romantic holiday of the year. When he saw her name on his phone’s caller ID, he answered it warily. Her voice was soft and each word carefully spoken as she explained the reason for her call.

Lydia’s long-time boyfriend, Jackson, and bane of Stiles’ high school existence, had proposed in an elaborately romantic way, and she’d accepted. She and Stiles had become good friends, so of course she wanted to share the news with him before he saw it on Facebook, which was her next stop after their phone call. The only person hurt in those early morning hours was himself and he supposed that he could be grateful for that. That was the absolute end of any romantic and admittedly, juvenile delusional ideas he’d ever had regarding what he imagined he and Lydia’s future together could become. It was the end of any romantic ideas he had at all.

~OOOOO~

_The transition from dating to becoming exclusively devoted to your partner is followed by an engagement and shortly after, marriage. This should be a natural progression for any relationship. Within the first six months of a relationship, you should know whether or not you are in love with your partner and if there is a strong spark between you. This spark should feel as if it is igniting whenever you’re around them. This feeling is what most people understand as what it feels like to be in love._

_Sometimes this spark diminishes, but if you and your partner have been together for a year, it is likely that the spark will one day become the eternal flame that forever burns between two mates. Within the first year and the second, couples should be freely speaking together about their intentions with their future relationship. If they find that they both have similar goals in regards to their relationship’s potential, they should begin making plans on how achieve them together._

_Do not be afraid to voice your goals to your partner, if you have put in the time and effort to build a stable relationship, this will feel easy._ The stupid relationship self-help book proclaimed, which Derek had read five years into he and his girlfriend’s relationship. It was all of crock of shit as far as Derek and Monica’s relationship went.

True, the book’s overall guidance and message was logical, and Derek had seen those particular passages in practice with many of his family and friends and occasionally went back to re-read it in case he missed something vital. Derek really hadn’t needed to read the book to understand the inner workings of relationships to help his own. He was well-aware of how things were supposed to progress. Two people who spent most of their adult lives together, and grown to become in love with their significant other should have the same ideas regarding how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives. Those decisions should be easy. 

Derek knew what he wanted, but unfortunately his girlfriend did not. There was no book available and no decade of experience that could help him understand Monica’s wants and needs. He was beginning to believe that he wouldn’t ever understand her motivations or personality, not even if he spent another ten years with her.

Monica and Derek met in his first year at Beacon Hills Community College where he was pursuing a Criminal Justice degree. Monica was unsure of the career she wanted and was taking General Education courses, one of which put her in the same psychology class as Derek’s, where they were paired together for a project. It didn’t take long for them to fall into a relationship and Monica was very grateful for the calm Derek provided her hectic life. Monica’s mother had separated from her father two years prior and they moved around the Seattle area five times before they finally left for Beacon Hills to live with Monica’s grandparents. Though they were very loving toward Monica, her grandparents took every opportunity to make a speciest remarks about her father.

Eight months into their relationship, Monica declared that soon she was going to move back to Seattle to live with her father because she couldn’t take living with her grandparents. She constantly complained about how messed up her parents’ marriage was, how she really didn’t understand why people wanted to be married, but Derek didn’t take her words to be truth, thinking she only spoke them because she was in the middle of her parents on-going divorce battle. Wanting to help her and wanting her to stay, he invited her to move in with him, and gave her the spare room in his apartment, though it was rarely where Monica slept. Later, in their relationship, too late, Derek realized that he should’ve put more weight into his girlfriend’s attitude regarding marriage.

When Derek tried to understand his need to be with her, no matter how many times Monica ‘took time outs’ or ‘breaks’ from their relationship, he would tell himself to be patient and wait for Monica to change her mind. He really didn’t know what first drew him to her. 

She’d grown up so differently from him and her views on pack and family varied from his own. She’d come from a tiny pack that was located in the city of Seattle and most of them were not pack by marriage or blood relations. Her mother was a human, her father a werewolf like her, but still it was almost unheard of for a werewolf to divorce. Early on in their relationship, while her parents were still fighting over the proceeds from selling their house in Washington, Monica had said, ‘I’m never getting married. Too much hassle.’ Derek imagined these views would change with time and assumed she’d made the remark because of how the heated divorce battle was affecting her parents and her relationship with them. After a couple of years together, Derek completely forgot she said it.

Monica gave Derek just enough hope, even throughout their multiple ‘natural relationship breaks’, as she called them, to keep him devoted to her. Derek was, in this case unfortunately, stupidly loyal and as it turned out, detrimentally hopeful.

Monica had left him again, this time telling Derek how desperately she needed a freedom he didn’t understand pursuing. After she left, Derek told himself that this time things would be different. If Monica ever wanted to get back together with him, which he knew there would come a time when she would; he would speak up and lay out exactly what he wanted from their relationship and refuse to compromise. He would tell her what he expected their future to entail and the type of commitment he wanted from her if she wanted to be with him. He promised himself that he’d be strong, he wouldn’t give up on what he wanted, and if she didn’t want the same things with him, he’d end it for good.

Derek wanted what so many of the adults around him had, a mate and a family.

TBC


	2. "Home"

**Gravidity  
Chapter One: “Home”**

_Be it ever so humble there's no place like home._ ~Unknown

**Friday, November 15, 2019**

Stiles saw the clock on his bedside table reading 2:11 a.m., before he completely processed what had woke him, and groaned in displeasure. A second later, he realized it was the sound of his cell phone. The ringtone he had programmed for Scott blasted out of the phone’s speaker. The fearful adrenaline that washed through him severed his tired state and caused his whole body instantly wake up. Stiles scrambled out of the covers, grabbed the phone and for just a second his pointer finger hovered over the screen. “Don’t be anything bad,” he prayed aloud before swiping across the display to answer the call. “Hello?”

“Stiles?” Scott whimpered.

“Yeah, Scott, what’s going on?” Stiles swung his legs over the side of the bed and flicked on the lamp.

“We’re at the hospital, Allison started cramping…” Scott sniffled and cleared his throat. “I could only hear one of the heartbeats! They took her into a room and won’t let me in because she said I was freaking out too much. She said… they all said I needed to calm down while they figure out what’s happening with her and our babies! The damn room is soundproofed and I can’t hear what’s going on! Stiles, I think we lost one of them and…”

Stiles’ heart shattered and tears bloomed in his eyes. “Oh, Scott.”

“I know Camden’s engagement party is tomorrow…” Scott’s voice cracked. “But can you…”

“I’ll come home,” Stiles interjected.

“Are you sure?” Scott asked.

“Of course,” Stiles said, voice soft. “Nothing is more important right now and Camden will understand.” His roommate was staying at his fiancé’s home that night, so he’d have to wait until morning to call him. “Try to stay positive, I know that’s hard right now, but you don’t know anything for sure, right?”

“Right,” Scott agreed, weakly. “Call my mom when you get to the hospital. It won’t be visiting hours yet, but she’ll get you up to the room.”

“Are you sure that Allison will want to see me right away?” Stiles asked. ‘If she won’t see you,’ went unsaid.

“She’s the one who told me to call you,” Scott admitted. “I didn’t want to leave her, but she said after I calmed down and called you that I could go back in.”

“Is your mom in there with her?”

“No, she wasn’t on call when we got here and by the time she arrived they’d already taken Allison into the room…” Scott trailed off. “Mom said Allison needs a familiar Omega around and that’s why she wanted me to call you and your mom is in Oregon and won’t make it back until morning.”

Stiles understood exactly why Allison needed him there, they had a deep bond and it was different from the natural bonding omegas had with others in times of stress. There was no perfect science that could explain why Alphas and Omegas could influence other’s emotions by focusing and projecting their own. Omegas were able to project calm and comfort to all others, and they were instinctively more nurturing than Alphas and Betas. For two Omegas who were friends or family, they were able to create a bond of a different type, with a level of feeling passed between them in times of need that was only trumped by one’s mate. Stiles and Allison rarely showed this gift as easily as it appeared other Omegas did, but with one another, taking and giving comfort had become second nature.

When his mother had been in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained from a near-fatal car accident, while also fighting to acclimate to becoming a werewolf, she’d been unconscious for six days. The first day his father had been in a blank state of being, he’d hugged Stiles and made sure their basic needs were met, but he wasn’t really present. Scott had been an amazing friend, sleeping beside Stiles in the uncomfortable chairs outside her hospital room, his natural positive side helping Stiles remain hopeful. 

The second day, everything changed for Stiles. The trauma Stiles faced affected his biology and his Omega traits harshly came to be at dangerous intensities. Normally these gifts slowly presented themselves from the time one was born, climaxing around the time of puberty when other hormones helped balance them, before settling into states easily controlled. Within hours, Stiles’ instincts were elevated to levels that caused him to be completely irrational and solely focused on comforting his mother, who wasn’t allowed visitors due to her being in a contamination room. He behaved erratically, desperately trying to break into the room and had to be restrained. His body physically ached with pain from the need he felt to be beside him mom, to touch her and comfort her. He didn’t respond rationally to anyone for the rest of the day and a sleep sedative did nothing to quiet his mind or body. 

It was only on the third day, when Scott snuck their friend Allison into his room, did he begin to come out of his fog. She was familiar to him, unlike the other Omegas the doctors had brought in to try to comfort him, and not only that, but he could sense that her emotions were a little less controlled too. This helped him not only find comfort in her, but true companionship. She was able to get through to him, to teach him exercises to help contain the maddening emotions and she didn’t give up on him. By the fifth morning, he was almost back to normal and was able to think clearly and deal with his traits in positive ways. He was allowed to once again sit outside his mother’s room and even though a thick wall separated him for her, he took comfort from having her close and being able to be close to her. Allison and Scott never left his side.

“Are you there, Stiles?” Scott whispered.

“Yes,” Stiles said. “Try to take some deep breaths and remember that you’ve got to be strong. When you see Allison, tell her I’ll be there soon, okay? I’m going to take a quick shower to wake myself up, grab some coffee, and then I’ll be on my way.” He knew that Scott needed him as much as Allison did.

“Thank you,” Scott said.

“No thanks needed, buddy,” Stiles said softly. “I’ll be there soon.”

~OOOOO~

**Sunday, November 17, 2019**

Derek smelled tears as soon as he entered Cora and Isaac’s house. “Cora, where are you?” he asked worriedly, closing the front door behind him. There was loud music playing on the living room’s sound system, so he couldn’t easily focus on hearing her heartbeat or movements.

“I’m in the kitchen,” Cora called out.

Derek walked through the living room, turning off the music as he went and entered the kitchen. He was carrying large bags containing the items Cora was going to make for wedding favors and he knew that some of the items were fragile, but he was too concerned with Cora to give them a thought when he saw her. She was sitting at the kitchen table wearing the same clothing she’d had on when he’d seen her yesterday and her hair was a disheveled mess. He carelessly dropped the bags to the floor and bent down to hug her tightly. 

“What happened?” he asked her. If Isaac had done something to upset his little sister so close to their wedding date, he would kick his ass. He didn’t care if Isaac was his best friend and if Cora had been acting like a Bridezilla, they were a month away from the big day and she was understandably stressed because of all the wedding preparations.

Cora wiped tears from her cheeks and patted Derek’s back before giving him a faint smile. “I hope you didn’t break anything,” she said, voice wobbly. “I’d hate to have you shop for the favors again.”

Derek sighed deeply and took a seat in the chair beside his sister. “I’ll replace anything that’s broke, all right? Tell me why you’re upset. The whole damn house smells of tears and misery.”

“My friend Allison, the one who owns Silver Linings, the place I’ve hired to do the photography and video for the wedding, she’s the photographer there and she may have to cancel…”

“A month before the wedding!” Derek growled, his fingernails growing into claws. “Some friend she is, you could sue her for…”

“I wasn’t finished,” Cora spoke over her brother, placing a calming hand on his arm. “I’m not crying about her having to cancel on me. I don’t give a shit about that, mom’s already bought a bunch of disposable cameras to place on the tables during the reception and if I have to I’m sure I can con you into taking photos of the ceremony, even if you are the Best Man.”

“What’s wrong then?” Derek asked, confused.

“Allison was pregnant with twins, but Friday morning she lost one of them.” Cora sifted her hands through her hair and visibly shuddered. “She had to have a procedure that was high-risk to both her and the surviving twin. Allison told me that she’s recovering well, but the surviving baby is still showing signs of stress. The doctors predict she’ll be in the hospital for at least the next week and after that, they’ll be putting her on mandatory bed rest and it’ll likely be for the remainder of her pregnancy. She said that she may have to close Silver Linings until after the baby is born.”

Derek was ashamed of his immediate reaction. “I’m sorry for your friend, Cora. Of course I’ll do the photography if you can’t find anyone else.”

“I appreciate that,” Cora said. “I’m going to tag along with Claudia to visit Allison at the hospital tomorrow. I don’t know if you remember Stiles, the Sheriff and Claudia’s son, he lives in San Diego now, but he’s also a photographer. He’s home and he’s going to help with Allison’s business for a little while, but he may go back home before my wedding. I told Allison to not worry about it, but she’s really upset. Not only does she think she’s messing up my wedding, but she really wanted to be there too. It’s hard to believe she would even be thinking about my wedding so soon after what happened.”

“She’s probably still in shock,” Derek said thoughtfully. “Losing one of her children must be devastating, and with her surviving child still in danger, it can’t be good for her stress and maybe she’s just trying not to focus on that loss just yet.”

Cora nodded. “Yeah, I just wish there was something I could do for her.”

Derek gave his sister a tight hug. “Maybe visiting will help her, and assuring her that the wedding will be fine.” Derek stood up, the chair scraping against the beat-up wood floor as he did. “I’ve got to get to work. Call me and let me know how your friend and the baby are doing after you see her tomorrow.”

Cora stood and pulled Derek into another hug. “Thanks, bro.” She stepped back and picked up one of the bags of supplies. “I’ll be calling you earlier than that if there is anything broken.”

Derek snorted and brushed invisible lint from the furry collar of his department issued winter coat. “You do that,” he said. “I’ll be monitoring the speed trap area near the supercenter most of the day, so if there is I can shop on my break.”

“I thought speed traps were jobs for the newest deputies?” Cora asked, walking with Derek toward the front door.

“I have less than a year to show the Sheriff that I deserve the Undersheriff position. If that means taking extra hours and doing the crappiest assignments, I will.”

Cora opened the door for Derek. “You know Sheriff Stilinski loves you,” she told him as they stood in the entryway. “Claudia tells me all the time that he goes on and on about what a wonderful deputy you are. Also, every time you and Monica break up she goes on and on about how you should get together with Stiles because you’d get on perfectly with him. Too bad you’ve got a girlfriend, or you could actually be with someone who…”

“Bye, Cora,” Derek cut her off and stepped outside, the brutal winter temperature and wind immediately biting at his skin. Some point soon he’d have to tell his family what happened with Monica. Again. But he was sure that she’d come back, and if they did get back together, for good, he didn’t want to have to explain another break-up first.

~OOOOO~

**Thursday, November 21, 2019**

“Did you call your work and ask for another week off?” Claudia inquired, sitting across from Stiles as they ate breakfast together.

“Not yet,” Stiles said tiredly. “What day is it?”

“It’s Thursday, sweetheart. I think after that bowl of cereal you need to go back up to your room and get some more rest.”

“I can’t fall back asleep because I may not get up earlier enough to get things done,” Stiles said. “I have a million phone calls to me, most importantly the one to work, thanks for reminding me." Stiles glanced at the kitchen wall clock. "Shit, actually nobody will be there to answer the phones for another two hours. I can’t forget to call because my boss isn’t in on Fridays and usually spends Thursday afternoons locked in his office preparing for his three-day weekend."

Claudia winced. "He sounds like he's a joy to work for," she said sarcastically.

Stiles was too stuck in his head to reply to his mom's comment. "Okay, what else? Uh... I have to call Camden to find out how his engagement party went, because it’s been days since then and I’ve only texted him a couple of times. I have to go over my finances, meet up with Danny at Silver Linings and we're going to call all the clients that had their studio sessions cancelled this week and try to reschedule for while I'm here. Then there are the other clients to call to let them know I'm subbing as the photographer, and cancel all the appointments I will not be here to take.”

Claudia worriedly asked, “Is that all?”

Stiles gravely looked down at his bowl of Cheerios and realized they were looking blurry, which reminded him. “Oh, I have to pick up a new pair of contacts, make an appointment with a carpet cleaner to go to Scott and Allison’s house, call the woman who was helping Allison plan the baby shower and cancel it, while hopefully not losing too much money on the things Allison and she already designed together and then there’s…”

“Stiles,” Claudia cut her son off, reaching across the table to hold his hand. 

When he looked up and met his mother’s eyes, there were tears in them and he didn’t really know how they’d appeared there. “Yeah?”

“I can take care of some of that,” Claudia said. “I can make an appointment to have the carpets cleaned, I can pick up your contacts when I go by the post-office to drop off a package, the vision center is right beside it. I can even call the baby shower’s coordinator and deal with her, Allison told me who she was using. Greta’s a little spazzy, but she’s also very kind-hearted. Both your father and I were friends with her in high school and she has a great business relationship with my flower shop. I’m sure she’ll understand and I don’t think Allison will want to cancel it indefinitely. She’s just not going to want it to be at the end of next month like planned. Most women don’t have baby showers until they’re closer to their due dates or have already had the baby. The only reason she planned it so early was because…” Claudia blinked away her own tears. “Allison knew that having two infants would be harder than just one and she wanted to be as prepared as possible.”

“Yeah,” Stiles said, on the verge of sobbing. He choked those emotions off and asked, “Are you sure you have time for all that, Mom? You have a business to run and I know you’re helping Cora with things for her wedding.” Stiles gave up on eating and dropped his spoon back into the bowl. He was too tense to stomach more than the three bites he’d eaten and worried he’d get sick if he tried to force himself to eat any more.

“I have the time,” Claudia said. “I want to help care for Scott and Allison too, but most importantly, you because you're my child. That means if there’s anything I can help with, you let me know instead of taking on so much that you exhaust yourself. Now, get upstairs and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I’ll wake you up when I get back with your contacts, okay?”

Stiles nodded and yawned wide. “Thanks, Mom.”

~00000~

 **Monday, November 25, 2019**  
   
The shrill sound of Derek’s cell ringing woke him from a deep sleep. He’d pulled a double the night before and he needed to get his rest because he had another eight hour shift that night. In a groggy haze he grabbed his phone which was still attached to the charger on the bedside table and blearily saw his older sister’s name on the screen. He prayed that she wasn’t about to request his help for another change Cora made with the wedding plans. “What do you want, Laura?”

“I want to kick your sorry ass!” Laura shouted over the line.

Derek groaned. “Can this wait until later? I just got back from a double shift and I’ve only been asleep for…” He pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the time and groaned louder, “two fucking hours!”

“I don’t care if you’re running on two months without sleep, Derek! How could you do this?”

“Do what?” Derek asked, flopping back onto his pillows and covering his eyes with his forearm.

“Oh, I don’t know, wait until there’s only two weeks before Cora’s wedding to tell anyone about you and Monica breaking up again. I can’t believe I had to hear it from her, when I tried to call and ask her about Cora’s bachelorette party. You know I’m the one that’s going to have to deal with fixing the seating arrangements, don’t you? I can’t have just anyone take her place at the table for the wedding party! You were sad when Cora didn’t choose to have Monica as a bridesmaid, but it’s a damn good thing she didn’t!”

“I am not talking about this right now,” Derek groaned. “And there is more than two weeks until _Cora’s_ wedding. If anyone has a right to be upset about it, it isn’t you.”

“We’ll talk about it later, you can guarantee that,” Laura said threateningly. “You’re coming Thursday for Thanksgiving dinner and you’re going to be the one to tell the whole pack. I don’t just mean Cora and Isaac, Derek. I mean the whole damn Hale pack!”

“Whatever,” Derek said flippantly while yawning. “Now let me sleep.”

“No, first you are going to promise to find a date to the wedding because I am so not adjusting the reception’s seating arrangements again and I will not have an empty seat at the table with the wedding party. I swear to god, Derek, it better be someone that the family likes. Not that they all loved Monica, but at least...”

“Fine!” Derek yelled. “I’ll bring someone the family likes.” He would. Tara, another deputy, who was also friends with his older brother, Mathew, had already agreed to go with him. Tara had previously been invited to the wedding, but initially she’d declined the invite because her mother and sister were planning to fly in from Montreal for the week. Now, her family was not coming and when she mentioned that to Derek, he immediately asked her to go with him to the wedding. 

Even if Monica came back to him before the wedding, he doubted she’d want to go anyway. Monica always complained at weddings and Derek doubted she’d care if he took a friend instead of her. 

“Also, I have good news,” Laura said. “Uh, you're so frustrating! I can’t believe I had to find out from her, you’re so immature, bro.”

“Shut up, Laura,” Derek growled. “I have to be up in a couple of hours and I need sleep now. You can tell me your good news later. I’ll call you.”

“Fine,” Laura huffed and hung up.

When the screen returned to the home menu, Derek saw that a new text message from Monica had come through while he’d been speaking with Laura. He refrained from looking at it, because whatever it said would surely keep him awake. Instead, he changed the sound settings on his phone so that it would silence every alert except for the alarm or a call from the Sheriff Station. He didn’t want his quest to obtain the position of Undersheriff be made easier because of his family’s relationship with the Stilinskis. He wanted to get it purely because he was the best person for the position and that wasn’t going to be possible if he showed up to work too tired to do the job. He put his phone back on the nightstand, burrowed further under his covers and hoped he’d fall back to sleep quickly.

~OOOOO~ 

Stiles sat in his mom’s office, his forehead cheek pressed against the desktop, contemplating his life while he waited for her to finish ringing up a customer’s purchases. A few minutes later, Stiles watched through the open doorway as his mother followed the customer to the door and set about locking the place up. She walked into the office with a concerned expression and her arms crossed over her chest. “There are hundreds of beautiful aromas in this store, but the scent I smell most acutely is your anxiety. Just because I was busy with that customer when you walked in and I asked if you were all right, it doesn’t mean I didn’t catch your lie. It takes very little focus for me to know how you really feel. You aren’t fine, not at all.”

Stiles wanted to protest, but that would be pointless. “I’m sorry.”

“Stiles…” Claudia shook her head from side to side, her flowing dark hair bouncing around her shoulders as she paced in front of him. She’d taken it down from her bun, an act Stiles recognized as a sign that meant she felt stressed. “We used to be so close and I know that you’re an adult and naturally our relationship has changed, even more so because you don’t live close by, but I thought I’d made it clear the other day. You can talk to me about anything and I will help you whenever you need it.”

“You did make that clear,” Stiles said. “It’s just me, okay? There are things I don’t want to burden you with and it has nothing to do with you and dad. You guys are awesome.”

Claudia sat on the corner of the desk and asked, “Don’t you trust me enough to tell me what’s really going on?”

“Of course I do,” Stiles said, appalled that his mom would think otherwise. “This… this is just… I’m not… I don’t want to be…” he sputtered. Stiles bit his lip to stop anymore babble from coming out of his mouth as he trying to think of a way to explain everything.

“Are you anxious about telling me that you’re going back to San Diego?”

Stiles paled. “Actually, it’s the opposite. I think.”

Claudia’s brows furrowed and she asked in a careful tone, “Were you fired? Oh, Stiles, you say that you love that job and they have to know how stupid for getting rid of a great employee.”

“No, I wasn’t exactly fired, Mom. My job there…” This was it, confession time. “Let’s say it is not as great as I’ve led everyone to believe.” Stiles rarely talked about his job in person with his mother because of that, though he’d managed to snow his dad with stories whenever he visited him at the Sheriff’s Station. With his mother on the phone, it was easier to skirt around the things he disliked and to focus on positive aspects, which had been very few. “I exaggerated about how much I liked it because I didn’t want you and Dad to think all of my schooling was for nothing. I didn’t want you to thinking that I was unhappy.”

“Are you happy there?”

“I’m not, but I’m not really happy here either. I know I have no right to complain about my job, no room to talk about how messy my life is, or how terrified I am that I’m losing my love for photography. I came here to comfort my best friends and to help Allison’s business succeed in her absence, to do what I can to help keep _her_ dream alive.” Stiles rubbed his eyes, fighting back his tears. “I shouldn’t be whining to you about any of this, I should be focusing on my friends, not me.”

Claudia ran her hands through Stiles’ hair in a familiar comforting gesture. “My little boy, I thought I made it clear to you that I’m here to help, too. I’m your mother and I have always encouraged you to follow your dreams and to talk to me about anything.” She smiled at him and patted his cheek. “Even when you were nine and insisted on asking me detailed questions about how male Omegas give birth, I never ignored you. All you have to do is ask and I will be a willing listener and give you whatever advice I can, if I have it.”

“I know,” Stiles said. He ran his hands over his face and groaned, “You’re never going to let me live that down.”

Claudia gave her son a wistful smile. “Of course not, I’m your mother and it’s my job to remind you about those embarrassing things. It’s also my job to remind you about the really important stuff.”

Stiles looked up at her when she stopped talking; expecting her to part with some words of wisdom, but he remembered that she’d basically said that he needed to ask for it. “What should I do? Other than helping Scott and Allison, I’m not sure what I should do with my life.”

“I’ve already told you how I feel about you taking care of others to the exclusion of your own physical and mental health. If you need help taking care of others, all you need to do is ask. What you need and want is important and you have every right to complain about whatever you need to. If you feel like you can’t tell anyone else, you can always tell me, and if it’s something you don’t want to talk to your dad about, I can keep it to myself. You feel what you feel and you say what you need to say, because that’s who you are. Isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Stiles replied, just as firmly as she’d spoken.

“Let’s start with your job, tell me about it. I want the truth, not some glossed over version you tell your father and me, thinking I’ll worry less if I think you’re only mildly unhappy.”

“I really want to be independent when it comes to my career, you know? That’s why I left Camden’s family business, which was a place that isn’t much different from Silver Linings. I thought I could work at the graphic firm for a while and they’d see my ideas and eventually I’d move up the ladder, but I’m nothing more than an errand boy. They don’t care that I have a degree from Cal-Arts, it could be a degree in anything at all, from any school and it won’t matter to them because all I do is deliver coffee and project folders to people who have positions I want. I stay there, because I keep thinking they’re going to give me credit for one of my ideas and remember that I have a degree and the talent to back it up, but they don’t.”

“You’ve always been so fiercely independent,” Claudia said. “Even though you’re an Omega, there are times that I feel as though I’ve raised an Alpha.”

“Grandma ‘Linki always told me that I had an Alpha’s soul,” Stiles reminisced.

“At times,” Claudia said, smiling. “Your job isn’t what you expected it to be when you were hired?”

“Not at all, and I swear, I’ve tried to change that. I’ve done all I can to get a different position. I’ve given them ideas that they’ve used on ads, but I’m still nothing but an errand boy and my immediate boss gets the credit for my ideas. I was handling that though, I had hope and my boss appeared to be very understanding about why I’m here, when I spoke to him on Thursday. Then he called me when I was on my way to Allison’s this morning and his about about it was a complete turn-around. I’ve not been with them long enough for them to fire me, you have to be there a year for that,” Stiles said. “Officially, they’ve decided to ‘allow me to seek new job opportunities’ if I don’t return to work by Wednesday. I think they only allowed me the additional time off because I worked the government holidays and earned double vacation days for it. I bet the temp they hired to fill in for me does a better job making coffee than I do.”

“They don’t deserve someone so talented working for them. I am sad that you felt like you couldn’t tell me the struggles you’ve faced with your job, though I do have keen observation skills and knew something wasn’t right. You must know that your father and I are proud of you and your accomplishments, no matter where you go in life.”

Stiles grinned sheepishly. “You’re my mother; you have to say stuff like that.”

“That really isn’t true, but in all the years you’ve been alive, I’ve never been able to convince you of that.” Claudia chuckled as she slipped off the desk and walked across the room to a large file cabinet. “You’re planning on quitting and moving back here?”

“I’m certain that I’m going to quit and I want to move back here,” Stiles said. “But I have three months left on the apartment lease with Camden. He’s been a good friend to me; I can’t just leave him to cover all that rent. Then again, I probably only have about three months rent left in my savings account. I suppose I could give him that and then…”

“And then what?” Claudia asked as she rifled through one of the cabinet drawers.

“I’d have to find somewhere to live here and see if Allison is serious about wanting me to somehow buy into Silver Linings.”

“Did you talk about this with her again today?” Claudia asked.

“Yes, though I didn’t tell her about the phone call with my boss,” Stiles said. “I needed to think things through. She wants me to become half owner and run it in her absence until she can come back. We’d be partners. She told me that she made the offer to Danny first, because he was the one who signed on to help when she wanted to start the business. But Danny’s going to college part-time and doesn’t think he’ll have the time or the money to invest more than he does now into it. It’d always been their plan to hire more people once the business started doing well. But well, whatever happens with my career, I guess I’ll have to stay with you and dad for a little…”

“Found it!” Claudia announced, cutting off Stiles. She held out a thin dark blue folder and waved it around. “These aren’t the official ones, those are in a safety deposit box that your father has a key to, but I thought it best to make copies because knowing your father, it’ll take him a few days to find the key and the time to go to the bank and get them out.”

“Copies of what?” Stiles asked, making grabby hands toward the folder.

Claudia held the folder just out of Stiles’ grasp. “First you have to promise that you’re not going to be angry with me or your dad.”

Stiles’ hands fell and so did the amused smile on his face. “So it’s something bad?”

Claudia rolled her eyes, the expression one that Stiles often mirrored perfectly. “No, it’s not bad. Promise me.”

“Okay, if it isn’t bad, I promise you I won’t be angry.”

“All right.” Claudia handed it over.

Stiles opened the folder and leafed through the pages inside. He understood what it was that he was reading, but he didn’t get why his mother thought he’d be angry. “This is a deed and a will?”

“Yes, your Grandmother Stilinski’s will and the deed to her house,” Claudia said.

Stiles looked up at his mother. “Why are you showing it to me?”

Claudia sighed in exasperation and turned to the second page of the will where the beneficiary was named. “I know it’s been a long time since you’ve seen your first name, but that is your name, son.”

“She named me in her will?”

“You were her most favorite person in the world, Stiles,” Claudia said. “She left you her entire estate, which includes a sizeable trust. The college tuition your father and I told you we saved, half of it actually came from the trust, as she requested. There are also some pieces of jewelry kept in the bank’s lock box and she’s given you her home.”

“I thought you and dad sold her house after she died,” Stiles said, confused. “I used to drive by it on my way to hike in the preserve and saw people living there.”

“Your father and I are listed as executors to the will’s holdings until you either turned twenty-five or were to marry or have a child. We felt the best way to ensure the upkeep of the house was for it to be lived in, so we’d be aware of any issues the old house might have and fix them promptly. Your grandmother wouldn’t have liked for it to sit empty and given that it’s a remodeled farm house, the barns and land needed tending to that your father and I didn’t have time for. We decided early on that if we wanted the land and her gardens to remain healthy, we needed to rent it. We’ve been very picky about who we’ve allowed to live there.”

“What about now?” Stiles asked, hesitant. “Are we just going to kick the people out?”

“No. To date, there have only been two families who have rented it, both were recommended by Talia Hale and are part of her pack. The last family moved out three months ago. Before we rented it to them, we informed the family that you would be taking possession of it this year, whether or not you moved back home, it would've been your decision if you wanted to continue renting. There are still a couple of months before you turn twenty-five, but your father and I can also make the decision to release the holdings to you early if we both decide to do so.”

“And you want to?” Stiles questioned.

“We will talk with your father, but I’m sure once you tell him about your job situation and Allison’s idea for Silver Linings, he’ll agree it’s the best option for you. He wants you to be happy and live here as much as I do, so it won’t be hard to convince him. You’ll have to buy some from furniture, throw on a little fresh paint, but it is move-in ready. We can go take a look at it tomorrow if you’d like.”

“I’d love that,” Stiles said, feeling a little overwhelmed. “I can’t believe she left the house to me though. Why didn’t she give it to you and dad or leave you her money?”

“She knew that your father and I had enough money to do well and if you recall, my parents left me both Chamomile and the house we live in. Ania knew that and she wanted to make sure the house remained in the Stilinski family.”

“How much money are we talking about here?” Stiles asked, glancing at the pages in the will and not finding a sum. “You seem pretty certain that I can afford to buy half of Silver Linings without even knowing how much Allison wants for co-ownership of it.”

“I don’t know the exact amount off the top of my head,” Claudia dismissed. “We can plan to find all that out tomorrow before we visit the house. Sound good?”

It did. It sounded really good and Stiles could hardly believe that it was actually happening because he was pretty sure things like this didn’t happen to him. Moving home, owning a house and becoming a co-owner of an event photography business couldn’t possibly be this easy, could it?

“Stop second-guessing this,” Claudia chided and took the folder from him. “What are your plans tonight?”

“Uh… nothing?” Stiles said.

“Good, I’m closing up early and we’re going out for dinner,” Claudia told him, pulling him out of the chair. “Get my brush from my purse and fix your hair while I finish closing up. Even if you’re dressed like you’re still in high school, we are not going to the diner, we’re going somewhere nice to eat.”

Stiles looked down at his worn blue hoody and holy jeans. He really couldn’t protest his mother’s words. He was wearing clothes that he’d bought while still in high school. If there was money left over in the trust after he bought furniture and his share of Silver Linings, he would definitely buy a whole new wardrobe and throw out all the cheap itchy suits he’d bought for the job at Growling Graphics. Though he’d come back to Beacon Hills because of a tragedy, it seemed like maybe some good could come out of his visit after all. 

TBC


	3. "Aftermath"

**Gravidity  
Chapter Two: “Aftermath”**

_Control your emotions, or they will control you._ ~Chinese Proverb

**Sunday, December 15, 2019**

Stiles’ body felt sore and stiff. He’d had good sex before, but up until last night- or was that technically still today?- he hadn’t ever had sex with a man. Stiles had dated and slept with a few women, but none of them had been werewolves and he now knew why sexual escapades with one were usually spoken about as a near-religious experience. Stiles wouldn’t go that far, but there was definitely something to be said about a being who could be so in tune with their partner’s body. Stiles hadn’t ever been slightly attracted to an Alpha either, so that too had been new. Stiles had been the very active recipient of three glorious rounds of sex with a male Alpha werewolf. Stiles had been certain that almost everything he heard or read about what Alphas were like in bed were lies or extreme exaggerations, but when it came to Derek Hale, he surpassed it all.

Stiles slowly turned under the heavy, hairy arm draped across his naked waist, so he could face the werewolf asleep in bed beside him. Given that his mother had been at the reception, he was likely going to catch some flak from her if she somehow found out that he'd slept with the Best Man, but at the moment, he couldn’t bring himself to care. Guys like him didn’t have opportunities like this. Stiles knew he wasn’t ugly, and many people went for the nerdy type these days. Men who were so beautiful you couldn’t be sure they were real, yeah, those men didn’t ever look twice at Stiles and he was too aware of that to give them any more than a cursory once over. Here he was though, in the arms of just that type of a man, waking after many rounds of sex that would not be topped by anyone until he found his mate.

Stiles had proof right here in his bed that it had all actually happened, but it was still hard to believe.

When Derek had started dancing with him, Stiles totally forgot that his mother was somewhere else on the dance floor and it was highly possible that she could see him. A few minutes later, while Stiles’ favorite cliché wedding reception song, “Wanna Dance with Somebody,” blared in the speakers, Derek turned him around to face him and gave him a devilish smirk before pulling Stiles tightly against him, slotting one of his legs in between Stiles’, causing their groins to rock into one another. They danced like that, or grinded, until the end of the song when Stiles found himself being turned so his ass was against Derek’s crotch. The music was loud and the crowd of dancers so thick and chaotic, he and Derek’s moves seemed to either be unnoticed or not exactly out of place. 

Derek’s hands roamed everywhere but his cock and ass and Stiles just dropped his head back against Derek’s shoulder and gave into the beat and the way Derek had been making him feel. Derek kissed along his neck, tongue swiping just under Stiles’ jaw and he’d lowly growled out, ‘I wanna take you upstairs to my room, okay?’ Stiles hadn’t replied with words, instead he’d just taken Derek’s hand and walked with him out of the banquet hall and toward the bank of elevators that led to the hotel guest rooms.

Stiles felt sticky now that he’d moved and the dried come on his skin was painfully pulling at the hairs around his cock and on his treasure trail. He also needed to pee, so as badly as he just wanted to stare at the most beautiful sleeping man in the world; his body was making demands that he had to listen to. Stiles turned again and gently moved Derek’s arm off him, letting it rest on the mattress between them. He then slowly sat up, his ass stinging just a little as he put most of his weight on it. He wasn’t injured or anything, Derek had taken very good care of him, he was sure it was just the normal soreness he’d probably get used to if he started having sex with other men. He carefully swung his legs so they hung off the bedside and had to stifle a giggle as he saw the destruction surrounding the bed.

Derek was going to be charged a ton of money in hotel fees and Stiles would have to insist on paying half. He was the one who decided it’d be a good idea to tie Derek’s arms to the bottom bedposts using the bed sheets, while he gave Derek a blowjob. Derek had thankfully not cracked the bed frame, but the sheets had been torn apart, and little pieces of them lay scattered around the footboard. Derek had tried not to let his wolf come to the surface after that, but Stiles had assured him he liked it, so when Derek’s claws punctured two of the pillows behind his head while Stiles rode him, he’d just yanked them away before more damage could be done and threw them to the floor. At the time, Stiles was much too involved with reaching his second orgasm of the night to care about the feathers that were raining down around the bed.

Stiles had to put his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing aloud as he saw the lube bottle, which was knocked over on its side, the contents, thanks to Stiles stepping on it, splattered against the rug, carpet and streaked across the brown suede ottoman. Stiles also noticed the garbage can had been knocked over by one of the busted pillows; there were condom wrappers and used condoms thrown around the floor. He really couldn’t believe that last one, because that was just gross and it had been up to him to deal with the used condoms because he didn’t want to risk Derek’s claws popping them, he wasn’t usually so careless. The rest of the mess could wait, but he could at the very least pick those up on his way to the bathroom.

Stiles stood on shaky legs and bent down to grab the closest used condom, located only a couple steps from the bed. He almost dropped the thing as soon as he had it in his grasp, due to the excessively slimy factor. The moment his eyes really focused on what was in his hand, he realized why the condom, which he’d tied closed himself, was extremely sticky.

~OOOOO~

Derek came awake the moment Stiles moved his arm from where it had been lying across him. He chose to remain quiet as he watched Stiles move around on the bed, facing away from him, and a few minutes later, slowly stand up. 

He wondered what Stiles was going to do and if he was being quiet because he wanted to sneak away, maybe believing that things would be awkward if they had to face one another. In the elevator on the way up to the room, they’d talked and they’d both confessed that they weren’t looking for more than a one-night stand. Derek knew he wasn’t ready for that and Stiles had told him that he was way too busy to have a boyfriend. Stiles had even made a joke about the fact that they’d be the coolest guys to ever sleep together, because they were on the same page before the act and there wouldn’t be any awkward feelings or expectations involved after.

Derek stealthily watched as Stiles, pale naked skin glowing in the sunlight, began cautiously stepping across the floor. His heartbeat wasn’t fast, so Derek didn’t think Stiles was worried about him waking and he didn’t smell like he was in pain, so he didn’t think it was due to the last round of sex, which had been much rougher than the first two. Stiles’ scent was actually quite happy, but that changed when he bent down and picked something up that Derek couldn’t see from his position. 

“Oh, fuck,” he heard Stiles whisper in a shaky breath, while at the same moment his scent turned acrid and Stiles’ heart rate spiked.

Derek jerked upright at the same time that Stiles stood from his bent position, clutching something in his hand and staring at Derek with a look of absolute horror.

“What’s the matter, Stiles?” Derek asked, his blood pressure rising as his senses became overwhelmed with all the sudden onslaught of Stiles’ emotions. “Are you hurt?”

Stiles’ eyes widened and he thrust his hand out toward Derek. Almost in slow motion, his fingers straightened and he squeaked out the words, “It broke.”

The statement and the action took a moment for his brain to comprehend, but as soon as it did, Derek leapt out of the bed. “Hey, hey, hey, calm down,” he said. Derek was inwardly terrified of the ramifications, but it only took a second for him to shelve them for the time being. He didn’t know if it was because of his Alpha nature reacting to Stiles’ Omega nature, or if it had nothing to do with that at all and he just wanted to console Stiles and try to manage the situation and make him feel safe. Derek didn’t have time to ponder that, and he felt much less concerned with what ‘it broke’ actually inferred, because Stiles was panicking and he needed to do something to stop it.

“C…Calm d…d…down?” Stiles wheezed. He shook the hand with the broken condom closer to Derek’s face. “It… Oh god!” Stiles’ knees weakened, but Derek was there, catching him around the waist and pulling him over to sit on the mattress. “It broke, Derek. It fucking broke!”

Derek got on his knees so he was in Stiles’ line of vision and cupped his face, brushing away the tears that were falling down Stiles’ face. “Take a deep breath, Stiles and listen to me.” When Stiles took the breath in, Derek took the condom out of Stiles’ hand and examined it. “There is a tear, I see that, but it could’ve happened when it hit side of the trash can and went bouncing to the floor.”

Stiles blinked and nodded, letting out his breath and Derek heard his heart begin to return to a normal pace. “I… I didn’t think of… of that.”

“Right,” Derek said softly. “It’s a good possibility.” He took Stiles’ fingers in his hands, uncaring of the sticky residue coating some of his fingers. “You may not have claws, but your nails are pretty long. You could’ve torn it while you were tying it. Or, it might’ve just torn from being tied too tight. I’ve seen that happen. I think it could even decompose a little throughout the night, you know?”

Stiles continued nodding, but didn’t seem to believe what Derek was saying. “What if…” Stiles looked away, his eyes focusing above Derek’s head on nothing. “What if it broke when you were inside me and…” He looked back into Derek’s eyes and his calmed heart began racing again. “What if you got me p…pregnant? Oh, god, I can’t be pregnant! I just took over for Allison and I’m not even completely moved back here yet! I’m…. We’re not… Last night was a one-time thing, I was going to leave and now… now I could be pregnant because of fucking course this is the time of the damn month that I’m most fertile, so if it did break… Shit, shit, fuck!”

Derek took a moment to swallow down his own panic and moved to sit on the bed beside Stiles. He took him into his arms and squeezed him tightly. “It’s going to be all right. If you are… pregnant, then we’ll do whatever it is you want about that. There’s the Plan B thing too, right? I can, I can go with you now and get it for you if you wanted to do that.”

Stiles scooted out of Derek’s embrace and looked at him curiously. “How do you even know about that thing? Usually only doctors, Omegas or men who have had personal experience with it know what it is.”

Derek shouldn’t have suggested it, because what Stiles said was true and he couldn’t lie to him about it. “In college, my ex forgot to take her birth control and we had a scare. We were drunk on wolf's brew, excited and really stupid. She put me inside her, before I thought to put one on. I stopped her pretty quickly and we knew the chances of her getting pregnant from thirty seconds of bare penetration had to be ridiculously low, but just in case I took her to Dr. Deaton and he gave her the Plan B package.”

“Right,” Stiles said. “Okay, okay.” He breathed in an out a couple of times and idly wiped his messy hand onto his knee. “Then you probably don’t know that it’s different for males.” Stiles explained, “We have an alternate version of the Plan B. It’s more intense on your body and we have to check into the hospital so that our health can be monitored as it does its thing. It can be a brutal experience and there are high risks of future infertility. Shit, shit, shit.” Stiles ran his shaking hands through his hair. “This cannot be happening!”

Derek had paid as much attention in Health and Sex ED classes as most high school students did and since then he hadn’t had a reason to know about the male Omega reproductive system or birth control. Whenever he and Monica had their breaks, even during the one that lasted four months, he didn’t go out searching for one-night-stands. When he did have sex with someone else, it was usually beta males or females. Omegas were known to be serial monogamists, something Derek didn’t look down upon and understood, because he knew that he would get back together with Monica and he didn’t want to risk an Omega becoming attached to him after one night together. All of this factored in on the shock and terror he felt after hearing Stiles’ words. “I don’t want you to have to go through anything like that and I don’t want to live the rest of my life thinking that I may have contributed to you having problems with fertility. But whatever your decision may be, I’ll support you.”

“Whatever decision,” Stiles said the words slow and breathy. He didn’t meet Derek’s eyes as he asked, “Does that mean you’d want me to have an abortion?”

“No,” Derek said immediately. He heard Stiles’ quickened heartbeat slow down at the same time as a long exhale escaped his lips. Derek closed his eyes for a fraction of a second as he processed his own relief. It wasn’t that he wanted Stiles to be pregnant, but if there wasn’t a preventive measure they could take, he didn’t want to go the other route. If it was what Stiles decided on, he’d support Stiles’ right to choose, but it was a choice he wouldn’t choose if it were only left up to him. Derek reached out and laced his fingers with Stiles’ shaking ones. “If you are pregnant, I promise you that I’ll be there for you and the baby if you want to keep it.”

“I… I don’t want an abortion,” Stiles said, gripping Derek’s hand. “I used to say that if I had to… I could do that. But now, not now, I couldn’t do that… not after my friends…” Stiles rubbed at his eyes with his free hand, bringing Derek’s attention to the smell of his falling tears. “Scott and Allison, my best friends, they were having twins and they lost one. I couldn’t just do that on purpose when they’re suffering the accidental loss of one of their children. I wouldn’t ever feel right about it. I know it’s a choice some people have to make and yeah, a baby is not what I want in my life right now, but if I am…”

Derek didn’t need to hear more. “You don’t have to explain to me your reasons,” Derek assured him. “Cora told me about Allison and even if she hadn’t, it’s like I said before, Stiles. I’ll support any decision you make.”

“Thanks,” Stiles said, nodding emphatically. He separated their linked fingers and stood up. “I really need to get showered and get down to my room before checkout time.”

“What about…” Derek paused, at a loss as to how to say what he needed to without sounding needy. “We should exchange information, right? I mean, I get that we agreed this is just a one time thing and if you are pregnant we don’t have to be anything but friends or… We can figure it out then, but I’ll want to know as soon as you know the results.”

Stiles’ lips quirked up and he let out a tiny laugh, startling Derek. “The fact that we may have royally fucked up is hitting you now,” Stiles said, pinning Derek with a look he couldn’t read. “You’re starting to freak out about the whole possible pup thing.”

What Stiles said was partly true, but really, Derek had the worst social skills on Earth and though he was good at controlling his emotions in times of crisis, his antisocial predisposition was debilitating him now. He rarely spoke as much as he had with Stiles in the last ten minutes and he couldn’t think of a moment in time that he’d ever rambled. Now that Stiles had drawn attention to his behavior and more importantly said the word pup, while simultaneously scratching at his belly, Derek found himself unable to respond.

Stiles walked closer and stood between his legs and he exuded comfort to Derek. 

~OOOOO~

Stiles was not in the right frame of mind to offer comfort and assurance to Derek, though the man had made a valiant effort with him. At present, his Omega nature began to take control, uncaring of his rational mind, which was probably a good thing for self-preservation. He not only felt the calm Derek had helped him achieve, but an extra dose of soothing energy he was compelled to offer Derek.

“I’m sorry,” Derek said, the words sounding languid.

Stiles placed his hands on Derek’s shoulders and gave them a slight squeeze as he stared down into his eyes. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” he said. “It takes two to tango as they say.”

Derek snorted. “We didn’t tango, we…”

“Did the bump and grind?” Stiles supplied and dropped his hands from Derek’s shoulders that were much less tense.

Derek shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”

Stiles smiled awkwardly. “I hear that a lot.” He took a step backward. “You gonna be all right?”

“How did this,” Derek waved his hands between them, “turn into being about me?”

“It’s just how it goes, man,” Stiles quipped. “I freaked out first and you helped me and now it’s my turn to help you.” He was aware of the fact that with Derek it seemed like it took a lot less energy and thought to keep his body in a state of relief and wondered if it was because of the natural draw that Omegas and Alphas often had, one Stiles hadn’t before experienced so profoundly.

“I’m not freaking out now,” Derek said. “Though I probably should be, you’re doing a good job with the whole Omega cocoon thing.”

“Cocoon!” Stiles laughed.

“Uh-huh, that’s what it feels like when Omegas do what you’re doing now, it’s like you’re in a cocoon or something.”

“I’ve heard it described as a comfort bubble before, but not a cocoon, I think I may actually like that better,” Stiles said, smiling down at Derek and then glancing around the room. He located his boxers and pulled them on. “I’m just going to shower in my room. I’ve got a busy day ahead of me and I need to start it.”

“I have my room for another night,” Derek said off-handedly.

“Why?”Stiles asked. He did have plans today, but he was curious. “I get why it was a good idea to rent rooms for the wedding celebration, but you live in Beacon Hills.”

“I live in town, but most of the pack lives at least forty-five minutes from here. As if the wedding wasn’t enough face-time with the extended family, the ones from out of town are staying until tomorrow night. My mom thought it’d be easier if we were all together here.”

“So another big day with family plans?” Stiles asked. He was glad they’d transitioned to a more neutral topic. He didn’t want to leave the room wondering if Derek would spiral into a full force panic as soon as the door closed behind him. It was hard for his mind to do, but he forced his bad thoughts away and focused on finding the scattered pieces of his suit.

“Not until dinner,” Derek said. “At least me. I know everybody else is hanging out together, but Cora and Isaac are gone so…”

Stiles found his shirt, slipped it on and began to button it. He waited a few seconds for Derek to elaborate, but the man didn’t. “So, you don’t have to hang out with the others because Cora and Isaac, who are technically your pack, won't also be around?” he guessed.

“I love my family, but it usually goes without saying that if Cora and Isaac both can’t make it to a family function, I don’t go either.”

“But why?” Stiles asked. “I’ve met most of them, and yeah there are so, so, so very many of them, but they seem pretty cool.”

“They were on their best behavior,” Derek said. “It was a formal event and dinner will be too because we’re going to one of the hotel’s restaurants.”

“Ah hah!” Stiles waved the pants he’d pulled out from behind the large flat screen television. “You’re the black sheep?”

Derek laughed dryly. “That’s an understatement.”

Stiles pulled his pants on and bounced a little as he buttoned them up. “I don’t get that.”

Derek quirked an eyebrow at him. “Really?”

“The guy I met last night and the guy I’m looking at now doesn’t seem to fit that description, though I’m guessing you think that you do. Sure, you’re a little broody looking and I could’ve sworn you hated me up until the moment you started to dance with me…”

“I didn’t,” Derek protested. “I just usually don’t enjoy being social unless it’s necessary.”

“And yet you’re a werewolf,” Stiles said, amused. “Though I’m sure it’s one of the reasons my father speaks so highly of you. You’re serious and you don’t run your mouth. Those are two of his favorite qualities in people, which is ironic because my mother and I barely possess a shred of those traits.”

Derek laughed and his eyes shone. “Your sense of humor makes up for it, I’m sure.”

Stiles gave Derek a long look. “I’m not sure if that’s an insult or a compliment.” He picked up his two socks, righted the small recliner and sat in it to put them on. “Back to you being the black sheep, Derek. I don’t think it’s true, so…”

“My Great-Grandmother affectionately refers to me as ‘her little Omega Alpha’. She’s been doing it so long that some of my family, including my mother will call me ‘Alphega’, ‘Ompha’ or various other combinations. A couple of years ago, during this huge family reunion where we were all eating at this giant circle of picnic tables, my niece Hannah, who was eight at the time, stopped all conversation to ask my mom a question.”

Stiles grabbed for his shoes and slipped them on. “Which was?” he prompted, feeling defensive for Derek.

“It began innocent, she’s a human Beta and so she says that when she turns sixteen she’s going to ask for the bite and so she asked, ‘After I become a werewolf, can I change my class like Uncle Derek?’ Before my mother could answer her, everyone else was laughing. That is a story that is brought up every time I’m alone with any of my extended family and at least once or twice a year with my mom’s pack. Now that I’m Cora and Isaac’s Alpha, that treatment can’t be tolerated, at least not in front of them.”

Stiles sighed. “That really sucks, dude. But I don’t think it should matter whether or not your pack is around. Nobody should be disrespectful to you like that, especially your own grandmother. Obviously I know there’s no shame in being called an Omega…” Stiles paused for a moment as he slipped on his suit jacket. “I can also tell that you don’t think it makes you any less of a person being referred to as one, but it’s still rude and from what I know about werewolf hierarchy, those classes have much deeper meanings than they do for humans.”

“If I make a fuss about it, it only gets worse,” Derek said, yawning out the whole statement. He turned to get himself further into the bed and under the blanket. “So I’ll be in here avoiding them most of the day.”

Stiles nodded emphatically. “I understand.” He stood up from his chair and patted his pant pocket to be sure his wallet was in it, which contained the key card for his room. “I’m gonna head off now, just do me a favor and keep this between the two of us.”

“No problem,” Derek said. “I’m sure everyone was too busy having fun to notice we even left together.”

“I meant about the possible pregnancy,” Stiles said in as even of a tone as he could manage while speaking those words.

“Oh.” 

“Yeah. So, if anyone did notice, we had a one-time hook up and that was that.”

Derek nodded, his eyelids feeling droopy. “You’ll call me after you take a test?”

“Absolutely,” Stiles said. “You’re an Alpha werewolf and I’m an Omega, so the chance of us carrying a wolf is like ninety-nine percent, or at least that’s what Ali…” Stiles shook that thought away. “That means that if I am, I should start having hormone spikes and other fluctuations within a week. I’ll take the test and let you know as soon as I know the results.”

“Okay, thanks,” Derek muttered.

Stiles felt a build-up of awkward tension slice through the ease between them and knew he needed to get out of there before it escalated. “Uh, good luck with the family stuff.” He wondered if he should walk back over to Derek and kiss him goodbye, but quickly decided against it. “Bye, Derek.”

“Goodbye, Stiles.”

~OOOOO~

Stiles retained his calm aura until he had driven about a mile from the hotel. At which point in time, he pulled over to the side of the road, turned his radio all the way up and screamed at the top of his lungs until all the excess nerves he felt shaking within him dissipated to being only a slow thrum in his system. He’d cried too, big fat tears that stained his cheeks and needed more than just his palms to wipe them away. With a trembling hand, Stiles turned the volume down on the radio and then pulled the collar of his shirt up over his face and used the t-shirt to dry his face.

“Okay,” he said in an insistent tone. “No more of that.” He angled the rearview mirror so that he could look at his reflection. His eyes were bloodshot from crying and puffy. It was a good thing he now lived alone and wouldn’t have to deal with his mother and father either sensing his feelings or seeing the evidence of them on his face. “You have to forget about this until next week,” he told himself, giving his own eyes a hard stare. “There’s no point in freaking out like that again. You have too much going on to worry about something that could be nothing at all. Don’t be a stereotype, Stiles. Get your emotions under control and be strong. Got it?” Stiles nodded at his reflection. “Good.”

Unbeknownst to Stiles, a few miles away, Derek Hale was standing in front of a mirror giving himself the same talk.

~OOOOO~

**Sunday, December 22, 2019**

Stiles felt proud of himself. In the week since Cora’s wedding, he’d held to his vow not to think about the possible pregnancy. Sure, a lot of that had to do with him barely having a single moment to think, but he gave himself props on principle.

“Hey man, you sure you aren’t sick?”

Stiles jumped and only just avoided dropping the cardboard box in his arms. Today was the day that he could take a pregnancy test and from the moment he woke up it had been at the forefront of his mind. He turned around to face Camden and gave him a tiny smile, because he was feeling much too anxious to make any real attempt at looking okay. “I’m not sick,” he told him for the second time that day. 

Earlier, while packing his DVD’s from the cabinet in the living room, he’d come across ‘Three Betas and a Baby’, a cheesy romance movie that belonged to Camden’s fiancé, Colleen. Camden hadn’t realized what Stiles was upset about when he noticed him staring into space and looking pale. Instead, he’d asked if he was sick and declared that Stiles probably had the same flu that Colleen had a week prior. Stiles insisted that he was all right, fought with his emotions and went back to packing.

“You could be sick,” Camden insisted, taking the box from Stiles. “Maybe you should let me help you finish packing. There’s only the little stuff, yeah? If you are sick, you’ll only make yourself sicker by running yourself into the ground. When you showed up here Friday night you looked tired, but today you look like a freaking zombie.”

Stiles looked into his friend’s eyes and saw how worried Camden truly was. They didn’t have a brotherly bond like he and Scott did, but they were still best friends and really Camden was the only person in his life that he could tell truth. “I’m not sick,” he said it again, but this time with absolute assurance. “I know I’ve been weird, but there’s a good reason for that.”

“Oh no,” Camden whispered, his blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “Please tell me that it isn’t cancer…”

“Oh god, no!” Stiles said and took the box away from Camden. He pushed him toward the sofa and made him sit down. Stiles really should’ve been more preemptively sensitive. When he’d first had the talk with Camden about moving out, starting by saying that he had something important they needed to talk about, Camden had instantly gone to thinking Stiles had cancer. Camden had good reason to be so wary of the disease, in the last six months his older brother and his brother-in-law had been diagnosed with cancer. His fear of it hitting someone else close to him was far from irrational. “I’m sorry, man, it isn’t that.” And didn’t that just sort of put things in a little more perspective for him. As life-altering as it would be, having a baby was supposed to be a happy event. 

Camden sighed. “What is it? It’s huge, I can tell it’s huge.”

“It might be,” Stiles told him and sat beside him. He felt tears prick at his eyes and his mouth turned dry as the desert. It took every ounce of thought he had to manage speaking. “I might be pregnant.” 

“Holy shit!” Camden yelled and popped up from the sofa. He put his hands on his head and spun around a moment before he looked back down at Stiles. “Are you serious?”

Stiles said nothing in reply, his heated glare said enough.

Camden dropped down onto the sofa again and chuckled. “You’re making some serious life-altering choices as of late, but this…”

“It’s not like I planned it,” Stiles said. “Jesus!”

“Oh.” Camden looked confused. “But you said you might be pregnant, so I thought maybe you’d planned to…”

“No,” Stiles cut him off. “I said ‘might’ because the morning after the best sex I’ve ever had, I found one of the condoms on the floor broken!”

“Shit.” Camden shook his head. “How long ago did this happen and why have you not told me before now?”

“I haven’t told you because I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t think about it until the time came that I could take a pregnancy test. I’ve had too much going on with Silver Linings and moving my whole life from one city to another, I couldn’t afford to freak out about it.”

“Did you just crack because I was pressuring you, or can you find out today?”

“I should be able to know by today,” Stiles told him. “It’s been a week and…”

“A week!” Camden laughed. “You can’t know in a week, Stiles! Wait, was it a werewolf? Last week you were at a werewolf’s wedding. Tell me you didn’t do someone from the wedding party because I know from experience that...”

“Slow down,” Stiles said, his heart rate increasing. “I really need you to be a lot calmer about this, all right? I’ll tell you about it, but let me get it out, okay?”

“I’m trying to be calm,” Camden said. “This is just so crazy.”

“You’re telling me,” Stiles huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m the one that could be pregnant with an Alpha’s werewolf cub. You’re a Beta, so you probably didn’t give much thought to it when they went over the statistics in school, but when an Alpha werewolf impregnates an Omega human, there’s a near-definite chance that the baby will be a werewolf. The point is, because I’m more likely to be pregnant with a werewolf, the hormones a pregnancy test reacts to are much more prevalent than they are with human babies shortly after conception.”

“Okay,” Camden said sounding bewildered. “Can you take an at-home test or do we need to go to the hospital?”

“I have an at-home one I picked up when I got us up coffee this morning,” Stiles said. “I was going to wait until I was completely finished packing, but I don’t think I’m going to get much done until I know.”

“If you are… Wait, did you tell the Alpha about it?”

“I did,” Stiles said. “Before you get any romantic notions, we had a one-night stand and even if there is a,” Stiles gulped, “baby, we’re not gonna get together. I overheard him and sisters talking during the reception…”

“So he was at the wedding?”

“Yes, I thought I confirmed that,” Stiles said.

“Not exactly,” Camden said.

“Yes and he was in the wedding party. He was the best man, all right?”

“Not saying a word against it. Please continue,” Camden prompted.

“Right, so his sister’s were talking about how he’d just broke up with his girlfriend and I sort of distantly know of them, okay? They were together for a long time, one of those couples who are in an endless loop of breaking up and getting back together. His sisters are always saying he should move on. They got into his head and I’m sure that’s the only reason he slept with me. I know he doesn’t want a relationship right now; we talked about that before anything happened. I’ve got so much crap going on and if I am pregnant, I cannot handle adding boyfriend problems to whatever arrangement we work out.”

“Understandable,” Camden said and gave Stiles’ back a solid pat. “So the plan is?”

“After I get the result I will text him,” Stiles said. “We’d exchanged numbers before we even slept together because he offered to help me move some of my stuff in once I get back. I think at the time he was just being nice, but it was a good thing he did it, because after the freak-outs we both had that morning after, we didn’t think about exchanging them.”

“But you know him,” Camden said. “Right?”

“Sort of, but not really,” Stiles admitted. “The good thing is, Derek says he’ll be there for the baby in any capacity I want if I am pregnant.” He slapped his hands on his knees and rose. “So, are you gonna come with me?”

“Now?” Camden asked. “You want me to watch you pee on a stick?”

“Like you haven’t peed beside me before,” Stiles scoffed. “You don’t have to look, just sit with me in the bathroom for the three minutes it takes for the result to show up.”

“Only because you introduced me to Colleen,” Camden joked, standing up and wrapping his arm around Stiles’ waist. “I wouldn’t just do this for anyone.”

“I wouldn’t have talked about this with just anyone,” Stiles said.

~OOOOO~

Derek was in a meeting with Sheriff Stilinski when he heard his cell phone alert him to a text. He knew exactly what day it was and when he saw Stiles’ name flash on the screen he started to panic a little. He wanted to look at the message, but he was sitting across from Stiles’ father and needed to act professional.

“Is that someone special?” the Sheriff asked.

“Huh? What? No, I mean…” Derek closed his mouth. He was acting like a dumbass.

The Sheriff chuckled. “We’re done here, kid. Go answer your message and get started on your paperwork. We’ll go over more about you testifying in the Brown case tomorrow.”

“Thank you, sir,” Derek said. He shook the Sheriff’s hand and practically ran out of the office and into the restroom. Derek slammed the lone stall door behind him with one hand as he yanked his phone out of his uniform pocket. He swiped to unlock the screen and he gave himself a mental pat on the back for choosing to go to the bathroom to take the message because it was possible he might vomit. His hands were sweating so it took two swipes before his phone registered the action to open the new message.

**Hi, Derek. I took the test and I am not pregnant. It was negative! ~Stiles**

Derek read the message three times before it sunk in and once it did, he felt a rush of emotions that confused him. He didn’t know Stiles. Having a child with someone you don’t know is a terrible idea. Having a child with your boss’ son, who you hope is going to give you a much-deserved promotion is a horrific prospect. Having a child with a person who is not the woman he wants to spend his life with is even worse. His mind knew these truths, so it was really hard for him to understand why he felt disappointed. This was the outcome they both not only wanted, but needed, so that they could continue on with their lives. 

Derek braced his forearm on the back of the stall door and leaned his head against it as he took a few deep breaths, mentally reminding himself of the facts. After the second time though, he spoke two words that changed it all. “What life?” Because that was the real truth, the one he’d been too scared to face for a long, long, time. 

Derek jumped away from the door when his cell phone began ringing. Without looking at the caller ID, thinking it was Stiles, worried that he hadn’t yet replied, Derek answered it. “Hello?”

“Derek, finally!”

“Monica,” Derek spoke her name in a steely tone.

“Hey, don’t be an ass. I’ve been trying to get a hole of you and…”

“I’m working,” Derek cut her off. He really needed to text Stiles back. “What do you want?”

“To talk,” Monica said, pleadingly. “I’m in town, Derek. I really want to get together with you.”

“What would be the point?” Derek asked, angrily. Pissed that she’d not only led him on for so long, but pissed because he’d let her and now here he was contemplating how empty his life is. “You don’t want the same things in life that I do. I want a family, Monica.” There, he said it, only this time when he told her this it was with far more need and certainty than he’d ever had. “I want a partner in life; I want marriage, a house and children. I don’t want bullshit commitments from you and I don’t want any more maybes or somedays. I want to make plans now and make plans for three months from now, for a year from now, and the next and for… for forever.” When Derek finally stopped speaking, his chest was rising and falling rapidly as if he’d ran a werewolf style obstacle course. “So we really don’t need to talk.”

“Yes,” Monica said. “We do! Things are different this time, Derek. I really thought about us and…”

“You always say that,” Derek scolded. “But what you really mean is that you thought about you. You’re not ever thinking of me when you leave or when you come back.”

“But I am,” Monica said. “I swear to you, Derek. You know that I love you and I hate hurting you. This time things are going to be different because… Oh, damn it! Will you just please agree to meet me after your shift? Tell me what time and I’ll meet you at home.”

“No,” Derek said. “I’m not going to let you…”

“You’re not going to let me say yes to you in person,” Monica interrupted and then let out a strained laugh.

“I haven’t asked you a question,” Derek growled. “You really don’t listen to…”

“That all sounded like a marriage proposal to me, Derek! Please tell me that I’m not crazy here, because you’re going to break my heart if that isn’t what you meant by that.”

“What?” It was hard for Derek to believe her, especially over the phone.

“Please meet me after your shift and say all that stuff again and I promise you, I will tell you that I’m different and I will show you that I want the same things. I swear I’ll tell you all of that and more.”

Derek felt like his knees might give out on him and he grasped the wall of the stall so hard he dented the metal. “You’re serious?”

“Yes, I am. I’m completely serious, Derek. I love you.”

“Okay,” he told her. “I’ll be home by six.”

“Awesome, I won’t be late,” Monica said. “I’ll see you then.”

“Yeah,” Derek muttered and ended the call. He didn’t know if he should allow himself to feel the elation he so desperately wanted to feel. In mere moments he’d gone through a hurricane of emotions and had no clue which ones to settle on. Now wasn’t the time to figure any of that stuff out. He needed to get back to work and he also had to let Stiles know he’d received his message.

 **Hi, Stiles. Thank you for letting me know. ~Derek** There really wasn’t anything else he could write, because what he really wanted to say, what he truly felt, it was completely nonsensical. 

TBC 


	4. "Waning"

**Gravidity  
Chapter Three: “Waning”**

Regarding permanence and change, _Life is like the moon: now full, now dark._ ~Polish Proverb

**Sunday, January 19, 2020**

Derek pulled the Sheriff Department’s SUV into what looked to be the only free spot on the main drag of downtown Beacon Hills. Northern California was experiencing an unseasonably warm January after a colder than usual November and December. The change in weather made field work much easier for navigation, but it also removed cabin fever and everyone want to be out and about in the fresh air. He’d been nearing the end of his shift when the call came in for a 488 at Chamomile. He’d been quite surprised that the Sheriff himself wasn’t responding to the incident at his wife’s shop, but remembered that the man was attending a Law Enforcement conference in Los Angeles. Dispatch had few details, stating only that the caller, his sister, Cora, had detained a twelve year-old male who she said was not a threat. 

Derek had to walk up to the shop quite a few blocks, choosing not to be an asshole and block other cars in just because he could. He was unsure if he’d be making an arrest or not, and if he did, it might do the kid some good to have to walk eight blocks down main street while handcuffed. As Derek neared the store, he passed Silver Linings, but refused to look in the large front window, choosing to keep his focus completely on his job. He was finally engaged to Monica, they were planning their wedding and soon they’d be spending the rest of their lives together. He was about to have the life he’d wanted to have for a long time, there was no reason to think about the night he’d spent with Stiles. 

Except that he was thinking about it, especially when he caught the faint odor of Stiles as he opened the door to Chamomile.

“Officer Hale,” Claudia Stilinski greeted with a wide smile on her face.

“Hello, Mrs. Stilinski,” Derek replied. He hadn’t seen the woman since Cora’s wedding a month ago, since he’d been with Stiles, and now all he could do was pick out their striking similarities. She had the same eyes, hair color, scattering of moles and lanky body. 

“Cora has the wayward youth in the back office,” she told him and waved her arm dramatically in a mannerism which reminded him even more of her son. “I have to get these flowers in some water before they wilt.” Claudia pointed to the wooden table where various bunches of flowers were placed. “If you need me, just let me know, all right?”

“Of course,” Derek said while passing her. He opened the door to the office and his heart sank as he saw who was in the room with Cora.

“Nice of you to finally get here,” Cora quipped.

“This is why you requested me,” Derek bemoaned.

“Uncle Derek, I swear I was gonna pay for it!” Lucas said and shot Cora a harsh glare. If he were a werewolf, his eyes would’ve been flashing. “Aunt Cora is doing this because she’s mean!”

“Oh, please,” Cora huffed. “You want attention, that’s why you did this. You’re always pulling pranks and you thought this would be a prank too, but it isn’t. You were stealing.”

“What exactly was he stealing?” Derek asked.

Cora picked up a floppy looking single rose from desk and waved it, causing one of the petals to fall off. “This.”

Derek was completely confused. “You were trying to steal a rose?”

Lucas shook his head. “No, I said I was gonna pay for it. You have to believe me,” he pleaded and dug into his pocket. “I have money!”

“You were trying to see what you could get away with when we were busy,” Cora said. “The junior high’s Valentine’s Day Dance is coming up and we had dozens of kids with their parents in here ordering boutonnieres and corsages. I didn’t even see him come in, but then I smelled him and when I did, I saw him trying to sneak out the door.”

“Oh my god!” Lucas wailed and put his hands over his face. “You’ve ruined my life, Aunt Cora. Come Tuesday, everyone at school is going to know about this!”

“Then you shouldn’t have stolen from us! How stupid can you be, Lucas? Not only do I work here, but the owner is the Sheriff’s wife!”

“But I didn’t mean to,” Lucas said. He was looking at Derek now and his eyes were filled with tears. “It isn’t a prank and now no one is going to want to be my friend! Jamie Caldwell was here with her mom and she’s the biggest gossip in the whole school! Th…” Lucas abruptly stopped speaking and glared once again at his aunt.

Derek suspected that there was more to the story. Lucas’ heartbeat was going triple-time, so it wasn’t easy to gauge if he was lying or not. He needed to get Cora to leave, because whatever else was going on with Lucas, he doubted he’d get a straight answer out of him with his sister in the room. “Have you called Bailey or Mathew?” Derek asked Cora, referring to Lucas’ mom and dad.

“No, I wanted to see what you were going to do with him first,” she sighed. “Claudia doesn’t want to press charges, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t pay for his crime. He needs to stop with all his pranks and…”

“That’s enough,” Derek cut her off firmly. “I want to talk to Lucas alone.”

“Fine,” Cora muttered.

“Wait,” Lucas said. “I’m supposed to meet Hannah back at the library in five minutes. Can I have my cell phone back so I can call her and…”

“I’ll text her and tell her you’re here and will be running a little late,” Cora said. “That is, if Derek doesn’t arrest you.”

“Don’t tell her what happened, Aunt Cora,” Lucas said, voice wobbling. “Please.”

Cora’s shoulders slumped a little. “I won’t, just stop lying and tell Derek the truth. You know I love you and I just don’t want you making bad choices.”

“Okay,” Lucas agreed, voice small.

When Cora left, Derek waited a moment before he crouched down in front of the chair Lucas was sitting in. “Take a couple of deep breaths and then tell me what happened. I want the truth, all right?”

“Okay,” Lucas agreed. A couple seconds later he said, “I was going to pay for the rose.”

Derek was glad to know that Lucas’ heart was steady, so he was absolutely telling the truth. “Why did you try to steal it then?”

Lucas huffed. “I’m not a thief. I would never steal, especially not from Mrs. Stilinski; Stiles wouldn’t be my friend anymore if I did that.”

Derek wondered why his nephew considered Stiles his friend, he wanted to ask, but that wasn’t an issue at present. “But Cora said you were going out the door with it,” Derek prompted.

“I was, but not because I was going to steal it. I just… It sounds so stupid now!”

“Take your time, kiddo,” Derek said. “Stealing is stupid, so if that’s not what you were doing, then it won’t sound that way.”

“I was in line behind all these people to buy it, but then Theo’s best friend walked in.”

“Theo?” Derek asked. “Who is he?”

“Theo is who I was buying the flower for,” Lucas whispered. “I was going to ask him to the dance. Hannah and I were supposed to study with him at the library tonight, and on the way there I told her that I wanted to ask him. She said that I should buy him a rose, because then he’ll know I want to go with him as more than friends.”

What had happened was now painfully clear. “When you saw Theo’s best friend come in, you figured they’d realize what you were doing and spoil the surprise?”

“Yes!” Lucas exclaimed.

“That sucks.” Derek acknowledged that the world was much different from what it was like when he was a kid. Now nearly every kid owned a smart phone and within seconds they were texting, twittering or myfaceing every event going on in their lives, big or small and gossip spread like wildfire. Before Lucas even got to the register, it was likely that Theo’s friend would’ve already texted Theo and ruined the surprised.

“Lola knows I like him and she’s not as much of a gossip as Jamie, but if she saw me, she’d text him right away. I was going to wait outside until she left and then go back in to pay for it.”

“What exactly happened when Cora caught you?” Derek asked, feeling terribly sorry for his nephew’s plight. He shouldn’t have thought leaving a store with an unpaid item was okay, but he got that he probably wasn’t thinking too clearly.

“She yelled my name and told me to come in here,” Lucas said, gesturing around the office.

Derek stood up and paced before him. “So she didn’t accuse you of stealing in front of everyone?”

“Well…” Lucas’ eyes widened and he smiled. “No, she didn’t!” Then he frowned. “But Jamie’s a werewolf, so she probably heard…”

“No,” Derek cut in, stilling. “This office is soundproofed, can’t you tell?”

Lucas looked around. “I guess it seems pretty quiet without the door open.”

“And I’m sure Cora closed it before she started talking to you and called the police, am I right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “So, what’s going to happen to me?”

Derek thought for a moment. “I’ll explain the situation to Mrs. Stilinski and Aunt Cora. Cora’s a sucker for love, so I’d bet she’d be willing to give you a rose for Theo on the house.”

Lucas pointed to the wilted one on the desk. “That one?”

Derek ruffled Lucas’ hair. “No, I’m sure she’ll give you a fresh one.”

“Awesome!” Lucas said, standing up. “But can they hurry? Theo’s got to be home by eight and we really do have to study and the Library isn’t open tomorrow!”

“Okay, kid.” Derek walked into the shop and seeing it was empty, he quickly explained the situation to both women. He’d been right about Cora; she was extremely happy with the true story and gave him extra money so that Claudia could fix him up a romantic bouquet.

Derek radioed dispatch, informed them of the misunderstanding and told them that he was now off-call duty, unless there was an emergency and would be reporting back to the station shortly. As he exited the shop, his cell phone rang the tune he’d programmed for Monica.

“Hey,” he greeted. “I was just on my last call. I’ve got to stop by the station and check in, but I should be home in about a half an hour.”

“Well that’s good to know,” Monica said. “Maybe you can meet us? I’m with your mom and Laura; we’re on our way into town.”

“Are you going to dinner together?” Derek asked. He was happy that his family seemed to be making an effort with Monica, even if they were wary about believing her commitment to him was real this time.

“No, we’re going to check out Silver Linings,” Monica said.

Derek halted in his footsteps and his head spun a little, causing him to miss whatever else Monica was saying. “What… what?” he asked, trying to sound normal even though he could hardly speak.

“I’ve seen Cora’s pictures and the photographer is amazing! We’ve been doing a lot of wedding planning today and I thought…”

Derek let her continue to talk as he jogged toward Silver Linings. He had to put a stop to this. If he warned Stiles before they got there, then Stiles could tell them that he wouldn’t be available for he and Monica’s wedding.

“So, do you think you can meet us there in about an hour?” Monica asked.

“I’ll let you know,” Derek stammered. “I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

“Wait, Derek, are you all right?” Monica asked worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Derek lied. “But I’m getting a text from the station, so I have to go.” Derek ended the call and walked into an alley a couple of blocks away from Silver Linings so that he had a little privacy while he called Cora.

“Long time no talk, bro,” Cora joked.

“If possible, I need you to go into the office alone and close the door,” Derek told her. “It’s important.”

“I’m actually in here already. Is this about Lucas? If it is, I can see him through the window and he’s super happy.”

“No, it’s not about Lucas,” Derek told her. “I just got off the phone with Monica. Mom and Laura are accompanying her to Silver Linings in an hour, probably to book Stiles as a photographer for our wedding. Did you recommend we use them? Did Laura and Mom? You all know what happened between us at your wedding!”

“First, none of us suggested it. Last week she got all amazed while looking at my wedding photos and asked who the photographer was and I told her about how you were gonna do it, but then Stiles could, so I let you off the hook. Second, I doubt she’s going to care that you danced with Stiles at my wedding.”

Derek stopped running for a moment and carefully considered his next statement before he asked, “Is that all everyone thinks happened with us?”

“I can’t speak for everyone, but… Wait a minute!” Cora giggled. “Holy shit, you did more than just dance with him! I know he put his equipment up in his room before he joined the party, so that’s not what he disappeared to do, is it?”

“It was a one-time thing, but Monica doesn’t know about it and she doesn’t need to.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Cora agreed and rolled her eyes. “You two were broke up at the time, so I don’t see why it matters. I can’t believe you actually took me and Laura’s advice and got some! So how was he? I have eyes, he’s really attractive…”

“It’s none of your business!”

“I can’t believe he didn’t mention it when I went to Silver Linings to see the finished photos and video.”

“We agreed not to talk about it,” Derek gritted out between clenched teeth.

“Oh, and he had Danny edit out your dance from the video because really nobody needs a reminder of that,” Cora said. “Maybe that makes sense now.”

“I want you to call Monica and suggest someplace else.”

“You’re getting married in three months,” Cora scoffed. “There isn’t going to be anywhere else with an opening for that weekend. Silver Linings is just getting back on its feet, and it is less likely to be booked. Stiles had no problem hanging with me and didn't seem weird when I mentioned not seeing you two dancing in the videos. I’m sure he won’t mind being around you and Monica.”

“Why you think this is acceptable is beyond my understanding,” he growled. “Even if Stiles and I are fine seeing one another, which we would be, it’s going to be awkward. I don’t want to be put in the position of having to tell Monica that I screwed around and fuck everything up. I finally have…”

“A leash around her neck?” Cora supplied with a sneer.

“A ring on her finger,” Derek hissed.

“I gotta go, bro. This one isn’t on me. Mom and Laura should be the ones you’re talking to right now, but I get that you don’t want anyone to know about you and Stiles. Still, I think you may be right about putting a stop to hiring Stiles. Practically everyone at my wedding saw you two grinding on the dance floor together, so it’s gonna be weird if they see him taking pictures at your wedding to Monica only a couple of months later.”

“Oh, now you care,” Derek said, wanting to bang his head against the brick of the building he was leaning against.

“Go see Stiles then,” Cora said. “Head them off, I’m sure he’ll understand if you ask him to tell him he’s booked for whatever dates they need him.”

“I guess that’s where I’m headed now, but why did you say dates?” Derek asked. “It’s just one date, the wedding. I don’t know any other dates that we’d need to photograph.”

“There’s all the prep stuff, idiot. I know you two put the engagement announcement in the paper with that old prom picture, which was cute, but that was only the first step. You’re going to have an engagement party, which will require a photographer and new pictures for the invites for that and new pictures for invites for all other mini wedding events. Don’t act like you don’t know all of this, Derek. My wedding was only a month ago.”

“Why oh why did I want to get married so badly?” Derek groaned.

“You can always call it off. The only person you’d make unhappy doing so is Monica, or okay, Mom would probably be pissed too. Maybe Matt, he’s really excited about being your best man and has taken his big brother duties seriously since you asked him. You’re going to freak when you find out what he’s planning for your bachelor party. Though, if you’re smart, you won’t have one, at least not for a marriage to Monica. Good luck, Derek.”

Derek saw she’d hung up on him and he barely suppressed the angry roar that wanted to tumble from his throat. He radioed dispatch one more time, letting them know he had to make a quick personal inquiry before heading back at the station.

~OOOOO~

Stiles wasn’t exactly shocked when he saw Derek Hale enter the gallery and consultation area of Silver Linings, but he was a little disappointed. He’d hoped that Derek would have more tact than to try to acquire Silver Linings services for his upcoming nuptials. He hadn’t seen the wedding announcement in the paper a couple weeks ago, but he’d talked to his mother on the phone the morning it was published, and she rarely let her true feelings and opinions go unspoken. To say that she felt the couple was, and always had been a bad match was a massive understatement and apparently Cora agreed with her too. If you heard his mom talk about it, you’d think she actually had a vested interest in Derek Hale’s love-life, which was ridiculous and false.

Stiles didn’t care who Derek was marrying, though he was glad that such a long relationship was finally taking the inevitable course and he hoped Derek would be happy. Derek seemed like a nice guy and he was marrying his college sweetheart, so that probably meant that contrary to what his mother thought about their many break-ups being huge red flags that said they weren’t meant for one another, Stiles figured they’d been together and apart enough times to realize that they were better together. Now he was rethinking the ‘nice guy’ part, because who acquired wedding services from someone they slept with only a month ago? Assholes, that’s who.

“Hey, Stiles,” Derek said, his voice sounding uncertain as he stood only a few feet in the door. His greeting was spoken to the walls of photographs he was perusing, but his gaze finally settled on Stiles.

“Hi, Derek,” Stiles managed to say without too much annoyance. “Why are you here?”

Derek started walking toward him, but abruptly stopped and tilted his head to the side. “I was hoping to talk to you but… I wanted to talk to you alone.”

Stiles realized that maybe he should give Derek the benefit of the doubt. It was possible he had come in for a different reason if he wanted to speak to him alone. “There’s nobody else here. Danny’s off today, Allison is still on bed rest and I haven’t settled enough to start looking for new hires.”

Derek’s curious expression turned dark and worried. “No, Stiles,” he said, voice nearly a whisper. “You’re not here alone.”

Stiles laughed. “Yeah, I am. There’s no one in the back studio, I’d know because I took a look around and set the alarm before I came up here.” Derek looked beyond where he sat in a chair behind the counter register. To the left of Stiles was the thick metal door that he guessed led to the back studio. The only time it remained open to the gallery area was when he and Danny were both there. 

“There’s something wrong with the alarm, because I know what I hear and it isn’t from the shops on either side of you. It’s coming from…” Derek took a few steps closer and swiveled his head side to side, trying to locate what he thought he was hearing. “Well, it’s on the other side of the wall I guess, right behind you.”

Derek looked truly concerned and it was scaring the crap out of Stiles. “Then maybe I’m wrong and Danny came back.” He turned to hop down from the stool and by the time he put his feet on the ground, Derek had leapt over the counter and put himself in between the studio door and Stiles.

“It's not normal,” Derek hissed, grabbing his shoulders and encouraging him to move backward toward the gallery entrance. “Their heart rate is extremely fast and I can smell… I can smell...”

Stiles watched Derek’s face drain of all color as he stopped speaking and stared down at him with a look of anger. “What?” he asked, growing more frightened by the second. “What’s going on? You’re scaring, me, Derek!”

Derek let him go and walked backward until his back hit the wall behind him. “You lied to me! Why would you lie to me? How could you do that to me?”

Stiles waved his hands about. “Dude, I have not lied to you! If there is someone here, I didn’t freaking let them in and I don’t know who it is! I should call the damn cops or something because you’re acting really crazy right now and I… I really need you to leave.”

~OOOOO~

Stiles wanted him to leave? No, no, no. There was no way he was leaving now. He couldn’t. They needed to talk and Derek needed… Something, something more. He really needed to apologize and he needed to know the truth. “You really don’t know?” he asked, voice softer.

“I don't…” Stiles’ whole body started trembling. “I don’t know what you think I don’t or do know, or what I did! I know that I don’t know you very well and you’re really fucking scaring me, so you have to leave. If you don’t…” Stiles paused speaking and jerkily grabbed his cell phone out of his pant pocket. “I’m going to call my dad, I don’t care if he’s not in Beacon Hills, he can still fire you and he’ll send someone else to arrest you!”

In seconds, Stiles’ jumpy heart rate had skyrocketed and his scent had changed to an acrid stench that was a sure sign of terror. It hadn’t been there until Derek had shouted at him and began yelling accusations and allowing his eyes to glow red. There was really only one sure-fire way Derek knew of to make Stiles feel safe again while he was still in the same room with him. He dropped to his knees before Stiles and tilted his neck to the side. His mother hadn’t asked this of him since he was a small child, but even then it had been a challenge to allow himself to submit to her, the Prime Alpha. For Stiles to feel safe, it was as easy as breathing.

The phone dropped from Stiles’ hand to the floor and he stared down at Derek, his honey-colored eyes emoting pure shock. “What are you even doing?” He bent down and tugged at Derek’s arm. “Dude, get up! Do you know the kind of shit we’d catch if somebody was walking by and saw you like that? You’re in your uniform! It’d look like we were doing some kinky role playing or something.”

Derek got to his feet and was grateful that he’d done the right thing, even if Stiles seemed to be embarrassed by it. Stiles’ heart rate was still faster than what was normal for a human, but he wasn’t afraid. “I’m sorry,” he said with what was probably the most meaning he’d ever spoken those words. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I shouldn’t have acted so erratically, that isn’t like me at all.”

“So there isn’t an intruder?” Stiles asked. 

“No,” Derek said. “I was mistaken.”

“Good.” Stiles put his hands on his hips and demanded, “Tell me what’s going on and why you thought that.”

“Due to my own insecurities, which have nothing to do with you, I thought you lied to me. If I’d only just taken a second to think about it, I would’ve realized that you don’t yet know.”

“I’m not sure exactly what I’m forgiving, so I’m not going to do that until you finish explaining,” Stiles said challengingly. “Because you’re still confusing the hell out of me right now.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the same room with this particular scent, so I didn’t immediately recognize it, or realize why there was an odd quickness to the heartbeat or understand where it's exact location is.”

Stiles huffed and threw his hands in the air. “Shit, you really are crazy! Are you on drugs? My dad is going to be so disappointed in you! You just told me that there isn’t an intruder and now you’re talking about another scent and another weird heartbeat! There is no one else in here but us, Derek!”

“That’s not exactly true,” Derek said and chanced taking a couple of steps closer to Stiles. He reached his hand out and placed it on Stiles’ abdomen, happy when Stiles didn’t flinch away from his touch. He held Stiles’ eyes with his own and told him, “I’m trying to tell you that there’s someone in _here_. Our baby.”

~OOOOO~

Stiles didn’t know how he’d gotten from being in the front of the store to sitting on the large red prop sofa in the studio sipping bottled water, but he was infinitely grateful. “You’re sure that I’m pregnant?” Stiles asked, because not only did he not feel pregnant physically, he also didn’t feel what he was sure he was supposed to feel hearing that he was.

“I’m sure,” Derek said, standing above him. “Are you all right? You went pale as a ghost and wouldn’t say anything.”

Stiles swallowed another sip of water. “I… I think I’m in shock?”

Derek sighed. “I’m sorry, I could’ve reacted… I should have reacted much better.”

Stiles tilted his head to the side, regarding Derek, who had gone from looking like a hot deputy, to looking like someone had ran him over. “Yeah, you could’ve. Then again, I have no recollection of us walking back here, so I suppose the same could be said for me.”

“Your heart rate is normal again, but you’re still really pale. Maybe we should take you to the hospital?” he suggested.

“Absolutely not,” Stiles said. There was no fucking way in hell he’d go to the hospital and risk all of Beacon Hills finding out he’s pregnant. “I feel fine.” He was numb, really.

“Okay,” Derek said, still giving Stiles a worried look. “We really need to talk about everything, but there’s something else you need to know. It’s the reason I first came in.”

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that it has to do with your upcoming nuptials,” Stiles scoffed.

“Yes,” Derek said. “But… Stiles, I didn’t suggest doing so, okay? Monica doesn’t know we slept together and she saw Cora’s wedding photos and so I came as soon as I found out that she wants to hire Silver Linings for our wedding.”

“Oh, good,” Stiles said, relieved. “She wants to hire me, but you’re here to warn me that she's going to come in?”

“Yes, and she’ll be cominghere with my mom and Laura pretty soon.”

“I don’t have any consultation appointments,” Stiles said. “When will people realize they have to make appointments if they want to talk about hiring me?”

“Maybe make a sign on your door?” Derek suggested. He ran a hand through his messy hair. “Look, I have to get back to the station. I was on my way there to end my shift when Monica called to tell me they were coming in an hour.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “This is going to be so damn awkward. You’d better tell me the event dates...”

“You can’t meet with them now,” Derek said hastily. “My sister and my mom are going to realize you’re pregnant. They may ask you about it and…”

“And no one can lie to a Prime Alpha,” Stiles finished for him.

“Yes, even though your dad has told me stories about how you’ve learned ways around telling the whole truth to werewolves, it won’t work with her. Generally werewolves are respectable enough not to ask about pregnancies, but my mom and Laura know you, so I’m sure they will and it’s likely they’ll ask if they know the father. I’m surprised your mother or friends haven’t noticed.”

“I haven’t seen my mother since New Year’s Day, so maybe it wasn’t noticeable yet? And the only friends I’ve been around have been human. The werewolves that have come in for appointments were probably being respectful.”

“Do you think you can close up and get out of here before they come by? I’m off work tomorrow and I noticed your sign said you’re closed for the Holiday. Can we make plans to talk then?”

“I guess I can close early,” Stiles said unhappily. “I don’t really have another choice. I have plans with… Oh no, I can’t see my mom tomorrow! I’ll have to text her later and tell her I’m not feeling well or something. Anyway, I guess I’ll be free so you can just come out to my house whenever you are.”

“Okay, I’ll text you and you can give me the address then. Are you going to be all right on your own?”

“I feel all right and I’m sure I’ll be fine without you, Derek. I’ve been fine the last month, right?”

“I suppose,” Derek said. “Just call me if you need anything. I don’t care what I’m doing, I’ll answer, okay?”

“Gotcha,” Stiles assured. “Now get your ass out of here so that I can lock up or we’re going to be in the middle of a cluster-fuck and I am not up for something like that. Or, more of a cluster-fuck than which we’re already in”

~OOOOO~

The house Stiles had moved into was way too big for just one person. He thought about that every night that he came home to the wide empty space. Sometimes he let mind wander as passed by the barely furnished rooms, imagining the other families that had lived there, but mostly his mind sought out the memories of when his own family gathered there in the past. He’d practically tear himself out of his seatbelt when they pulled into the long gravel driveway and beg his father or mother to drive faster. The first time he saw the house and knew it was his home; those same excited feelings came back to him. 

It had only been a couple of weeks since he’d managed to move all of his furniture in, but that thrill had diminished. His life now was far from how carefree he’d been as a child, and he didn’t feel the comfort he had expected to still live within the walls of the home. He was grateful to have the house, he just felt like it was being wasted on a single guy like him.

Tonight coming home things didn’t feel all that different, even though he now knew that he was pregnant. It was true that having a child in the house would definitely make it feel less empty, but Stiles wasn’t ready for that. What he’d talked to Derek about that day in the hotel, it had all been speculation about how he would feel, what he would want, and what he thought he’d do if he were pregnant. The possibility was prevalent enough to scare the crap out of him, but he’d also talked a big rational game and then spent a week pretending like the problem didn’t exist. Even during the excruciating time it took to wait for the result, having a baby had only been an idea.

He’d never been so happy and relieved when he saw the pregnancy test was negative. He and Camden imitated twelve-year old fangirls as they jumped up and down and squealed with happiness. Camden took to yelling out all the things he could think of that Stiles wouldn’t have been able to do while pregnant or as a father. Stiles made a list of them, most of the items stupid things he’d never do anyway, but the list grew to four pages in a notebook before they ran out of ideas. During this, they broke out a good bottle of wine and toasted the test stick while chanting, ‘Freedom, Freedom, Freedom’. That had felt so damn good, because he felt trapped by all the other changes going on in his life.

Stiles kicked off his shoes near the front door and hung his jacket up in the hall closet, wondering for split-second what a tiny jacket would look like hanging beside his own in a year from now. He pushed the thought away and let himself steps-glide they way he’d done as a child; he’d called it wood skating back then. Sometimes his grandmother would let him, Scott and Allison move all the furniture out of the den and they’d have a big open space as their rink. They’d slip on their fuzziest warm socks and pretend like they were Olympic ice skaters, or ball one up to use as a puck, armed with pillows that substituted as hockey sticks. There were times that his mother and father would join in on the fun too. Stiles stopped his glide at the entrance to the den and looked at the empty space. It would make the perfect playroom.

For another child.

For a baby that wasn’t the one he was carrying now. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t be a father, not right now, maybe not ever. He was an Omega, but that didn’t mean that he’d automatically be a good parent. He was selfish and just because he’d been given a home and money, it didn’t mean that he was the adult he’d been struggling to become. Stiles’ life over the course of the last year was proof that he wasn’t ready to care for child, because he could hardly care for himself. Camden would’ve eventually moved in with his fiancé and Stiles probably would’ve taken the opportunity to run back home, even if it meant living in his childhood bedroom while he figured out what to do with his life. His mother and father were always supportive of his dreams and cushioned his fall when he made mistakes, but this fuck-up wasn’t a mistake.

He should’ve known better than to have had sex with an Alpha werewolf. He knew the statistics, was well aware that due to a male Alpha’s knot, condoms had a tendency to break and that a sexually active Omega should always use a back-up birth control. Stiles had told Derek that he wasn’t on birth control, so Derek had said he wouldn’t put the knot inside him, both because Stiles was new to bottoming, and because it would minimize the risk of the condom breaking. They’d been as careful as was possible given the situation, but it hadn’t been enough. Stiles had been thinking with his dick, wanting a thrill and something different from what he was experiencing in his life.

He’d got what he wanted. Hadn’t he?

“I can’t do this,” Stiles whispered, falling onto the small sofa he kept in office. It was one of the few rooms in the house he’d furnished. The office at Silver Linings wasn’t very comfortable and Stiles wanted a place where he could relax while he went through the books and familiarized himself with everything. He was glad he’d thought to put the sofa in the room because he didn’t think he’d be able to make it upstairs. He weakly pulled the soft throw blanket up over his head, began to feel his reality, and cried.

~OOOOO~

Derek wasn’t in the right frame of mind to hold a conversation with anyone, much less one with his future wife. He knew that he had to, and seeing how well he did over the phone would be a test-run for tonight when they were sharing space in his apartment. “Hey, Monica,” he said, picking up the call. Luckily he was alone in the station’s locker room, so there was no one around to watch him pacing back and forth, channeling his nerves out through movements instead of his voice.

“Where are you?” Monica asked, not accusingly.

“I’m at still at the station, about to dr…”

“Well don’t worry about meeting us at Silver Linings, the place is already closed. It doesn’t look like they’re open again until Tuesday. These small family businesses close up for the silliest reasons.”

Derek really knew better, but he couldn’t let this one go. “You think it’s silly to take a day to celebrate the birthday of a man who changed the world, who believed in equality and…”

“I don’t need a history lesson,” Monica sniped. “I’m allowed to be upset that the wedding planning is stalled. I was really excited to mark another item off my to-do list.”

Derek felt a bubble of happiness at those words, because not long ago he’d almost lost all hope that Monica would ever want to marry him and now she was excitedly taking the steps to plan their wedding. The very next moment he remembered why it was that Monica hadn’t been able to continue the wedding planning and bile churned in his gut. “You’ll get it all figured out and… And the wedding will be great.” 

“Derek?” Monica asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” Derek said, but knew Monica could tell it was a lie. He took a seat on one of the benches in front of the lockers and sent out a silent prayer for guidance. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about the pregnancy until he and Stiles talked about what they were going to do. Yet, he had no clue how he was supposed to hide it from Monica. Worse, he wasn’t sure that when he did tell her, what her reaction would be. They’d just gotten back together, it seemed she was finally swayed into settling down with him, but would she even want to stick around after learning about the baby?

“Derek, I know you’ve had a tough work-day,” Monica spoke after a few minutes of silence. “I’m not gonna be one of those nagging wives, so I’m not even going to say something to make you feel guilty for lying to me, or push you to tell me what’s going on. My Mom and Dad always did that with one another, they had so many fights and I always just thought to myself, ‘Let them come to you when they’re ready’, but they never did that. Instead one of them would bitch and moan about trust and confidence until the other would get so pissed off they’d spill whatever it was they were keeping to themselves and it was rarely anything of great import. But then they’d hold a grudge for feeling forced and it was so childish. I know we usually tell one another everything, so just tell me that you’ll talk about it when you’re ready to and I’m good.”

“God, Monica,” Derek spoke with a relieved breath. “That’s, it’s just what I needed to hear.” It was also one of the many reasons that he held onto her so tightly, she knew that he had trouble expressing himself verbally and was always patient with him. She was his best friend in a way that Isaac couldn’t ever be.

“Good,” Monica replied. “Oh, I just got a text from Laura. She says your mom called a place in Hill Valley; we’ve got an appointment with a photographer there tomorrow. Did you want to come with?”

Derek wanted to be there with Monica. He wanted to take part in a lot of the wedding planning, even if he wasn’t any good at knowing what kind flowers went with what type of bridesmaid dresses. He’d helped with Mathew, Laura and Cora’s weddings in one way or another, and his eye for photography seemed to help with choosing venues and other things. He couldn’t go with Monica tomorrow, no matter how much he wanted. With them out of town, it would be the perfect opportunity for him to Stiles without having to make up a lie about where he was going or why.

“From this extremely long silence, I’m going to take a guess and say you’re trying to come up with a legitimate reason to explain why you don’t want to go,” Monica said teasingly. “No worries, fiancé of mine, I know it’s your day off and you want to relax. There will be plenty of other wedding things you’ll be able to help with.”

“Yeah,” Derek said. “That sounds good.”

“Are you coming home soon or have they roped you into taking on a couple of more hours?”

“No,” Derek said. “I’m done. I’ll be home soon.”

“Okay, see you then,” Monica said and didn’t wait for a reply before she hung up.

Derek felt himself panicking, uncontrollably his face changed shape, his claws lengthened, his eyes were red and he found it hard to breathe.

“You all right there, Deputy?”

The shock of suddenly hearing the Sheriff’s voice coming from behind him jolted Derek out of the impending panic attack. His claws retracted and though his breathing was off-kilter, his lungs were at least filling with oxygen as he spun on the bench to face the man. “I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow.”

“I didn’t think there was much point staying the night once the conference concluded.” Sam walked closer, his arms crossed over his chest.

Derek nodded. “Was it informative?”

“Nice try deflecting, Deputy, but you’re going to have to do better than that. I could practically hear you fighting for breath down the hall and I know you were in your beta-shift before you turned to face me.”

Derek wiped his hands over his face before he dropped them into his lap. “I’m a little stressed,” he admitted.

One of the Sheriff’s eyebrows raised and he shook his head. “It’s more than just a little stress.”

What could Derek say? ‘Yes, sir. I fucked your son while I was on a break from my now fiancé and I just found a little while ago that he’s not as not-pregnant as we originally thought.’ The really terrifying thing about that was the fact that at some point soon, that was the gist of what Stiles or he and Stiles, would be telling the man before him. 

“It’s the wedding planning, am I right?” the Sheriff asked.

“Yeah,” Derek said. It wasn’t a complete lie, after all, the wedding planning is what led him to Silver Linings and brought upon the realization that Stiles is indeed pregnant.

Sam sat beside him and patted him on the back. “I remember what it was like with Claudia, except I didn’t just have to deal with her whims and wants. Her parents were adamant about us having a traditional Russian wedding while observing her family’s personal traditions. I love my wife more every single moment, and that love is the only thing that can explain how I made it through that crazy circus.”

Derek quirked a small smile at the story. “Monica isn’t close to her family, so they’re not involved with the wedding planning, but my mother and sister, Laura are.”

The Sheriff whistled as he stood up and looked down at Derek with wide eyes. “My advice to you is to stay out of the preparations unless they ask for your opinion. I think you may have it worse off than I did. After all, you have all those werewolf traditions from both sides to work in, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Derek said, groaning at the thought.

“Of course it’ll be wonderful when it all comes together,” Sam told him, smiling. “You’ll be inviting my wife and I to your wedding, won’t you?”

“Of course,” Derek assured him. Whether they’d want to attend his wedding to a person who wasn’t pregnant with his child, would be a whole other thing.

“I’m going to get home, you should too. Enjoy your day off tomorrow, Hale.”

“You too, Sheriff,” Derek replied. He waited until the man left the locker room before he disrobed, turned on the shower and stood under the hot steaming hot spray. The water washed away the blood that rained from the punctures he’d made in the palms of his hands with his claws, but the fear and uncertainty he felt stuck with him.

TBC


	5. Secrets

**Gravidity  
Chapter Four: “Secrets”**

_Nothing is as burdensome as a secret._ ~French Proverb

**Monday, January 20, 2020**

Derek woke up to the feel of fingers sifting through his hair. He opened his eyes and saw Monica sitting on the arm of the sectional sofa, looking down at him with a concerned expression. “Hey,” he mumbled to her, the caress so comforting it made him want to close his eyes again.

“I know I said I’d wait for you to talk to me, I even left you alone when you got home so you wouldn’t feel pressured, but you didn’t come to bed last night.” There was clear accusation in Monica’s words.

Derek squeezed his eyes shut as he got his annoyance under control. There were few things he hated more than waking up to Monica pissed off with him. A long time ago, when things first became serious between them, she made him promise that no matter what, they would never sleep in separate rooms. During her childhood, when Monica woke up to find her father sleeping on the sofa, it was always the precursor to many loud, long arguments that would rattle through their house for weeks on end. Last night, Derek hadn’t spared a moment to recall that promise, he’d been too wrapped up in thinking about Stiles and the baby.

“Look, I don’t want you to start our day with you thinking I’m being a manic bitch…”

“You’re not,” Derek said, opening his eyes and moving around on the couch so he could pull her onto his lap. He pulled aside the long strands of her blond hair so that he could expose her neck and began kissing it.

“Derek, stop,” Monica protested, wiggling off Derek’s lap and falling to the cushion beside him. “I have to meet your mom and sister in twenty minutes. I’m not going to show up with a hickey on my neck!”

Derek rubbed at his bleary eyes and growled lowly, “It’s not like they don’t know we have sex.”

“Do we?” Monica asked, standing up. “You realize that the time we had our clothes on, is the only time we’ve had any sexual contact since I’ve been back.”

Derek looked up at her and winced when he saw her eyes were red. He had enough shit to deal with today, he’d hoped Monica wouldn’t make his problems worse, but he just had to keep sticking his foot in his mouth. “I’ve been working a lot, I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Monica said, her eye color turning back to their regular dark blue color. She crossed her arms over her chest and bit her lip nervously.

“What?” Derek made a grab for her hands but she moved out of his reach.

“You know me, right?”

Derek shrugged. “Of course.”

“Then you know that I’ve never second-guessed my own appearance or your attraction to me. Since I’ve been back, I have found myself doing that more times than I ever thought I would.”

“Monica, come here,” Derek beckoned, standing up.

Monica shook her head. “I really need to go, Derek. I don’t want to fight with you, I’m not telling you my insecurities so that you’ll try to make them go away with an impromptu morning fuck.”

“That isn’t what…”

“It wouldn’t be anything else when I only have a few minutes,” Monica interrupted. She walked over toward the door and grabbed her coat form the hook on the wall. “Whatever it is that made you weird last night, that caused you not to come to bed, I can’t help but think it’s the same reason you’ve been too tired to make love to me in our bed.”

“That hasn’t got anything to do with it,” Derek protested. “I swear, Monica. We may be supernatural, but all the extra shifts I’ve been taking and the weird hours have been making me feel completely human.”

“All right,” Monica said, smiling slightly. “I’ll let this go for now.” She walked back to him and kissed his cheek. “We should be back by dinner.”

“That long?” Derek wondered. “I thought you were just going to Hill Valley?”

“We are,” Monica confirmed, grinning wide. “We’re going to go shopping at the mall there, too. They have a discount Bridal store there we want to check out.”

“Have fun,” Derek said, feeling at a total loss. He couldn’t sense anything but resignation from Monica.

“You too, doing whatever mysterious thing you have planned for today.”

“What?” Derek asked.

Monica rolled her eyes at him, but said nothing else before leaving the apartment.

Derek knew two things in that moment. He was going to lose Monica when he told her what had been on his mind, and he only knew one way that might stop that from happening.

~OOOOO~

When Stiles woke up, he saw the little icon on his phone alerting him to at least one text message, but he still felt like he was in dreamland and didn’t want to deal with reality until he drank some coffee. He briefly debated on whether or not it was a good idea for him to have caffeine, but quickly threw that thought out the window. His mother told him many times that she only started drinking coffee when she became pregnant with him. She craved not only the taste, but the caffeine, so decaf had been out of the question and it trumped all other cravings she ever had. He wondered if that was something hereditary, or if his need for caffeine was just his regular morning yearning for it.

He’d splurged and bought one of the popular one-cup coffee machines, so he was quickly huddled under a blanket on the sofa, warm mug in one hand. He drank over half of the cup before he checked his phone messages and wasn’t surprised to see the one from his mom.

**Call it mother’s intuition, but I have a feeling you didn’t catch a cold. Please call me when you wake up, Dad and I are worried.**

Even through text messages, his mother could tell when he lied. It was going on nine a.m. and the text had only come fifteen minutes earlier. He figured he had some time to think up a better excuse for missing their lunch date, so he closed out of the thread and opened the message from Derek.

**ASAP text me your address so we can talk. Please. I’m available now.”**

**Derek, I just woke up. I’m going to eat breakfast and shower. You can come by in an hour. 204 West Reserve Road – AKA The only big farm before your family’s property.”**

The reply from Derek came only seconds later. **Forgot you said you were moving there. See you soon.**

Stiles brought up his media player on the phone and selected the playlist he’d titled, ‘Inspiring’, and hit play. He hoped listening to his favorite songs would keep his mind off the conversation he was about to have with Derek, otherwise he’d give into the urge to go back to San Diego and hide from all his problems on Camden’s couch.

~OOOOO~

Stiles felt a sick satisfaction when he saw Derek’s appearance. He’d been under the impression that it was genetically impossible for werewolves to look like complete crap, but Derek was proof that it was possible. Derek had dark circles under his eyes, his hair looked uncombed and there was a coffee stain on his yellow shirt, which did nothing for his complexion. It was strange seeing someone who usually appeared as if they walked off the pages of a magazine looking so pitiful.

After a short awkward greeting at the door, a comment about his cousin’s family being the previous renters of the home was the only thing Derek said while Stiles led him into the office. “I’m still in the process of deciding what style of furniture I want to go with for the place, so this is the only sitting room for now.”

“It’s fine,” Derek said, sitting on the sofa.

“I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I really like artsy modern stuff, but the kitchen, which I can’t alter, is so rustic. I’m thinking I might…”

“Stiles,” Derek spoke his name in a gravelly tone. “We need to talk about your pregnancy.”

Stiles knew he’d been rambling, but anything he could do to not have the conversation they needed to have, sounded like a good idea. “Uh-huh.” He dropped into the chair behind the desk. “So, thoughts?”

Derek gave him an aggravated look. “Thoughts? Are you serious?”

“What do you want me to say?” Stiles asked. “Because I really don’t think you have any idea what kind of thoughts I’ve had about it.”

“It’s why I’m here,” Derek told him. “You’re the one who is pregnant.”

“Right!” Stiles shouted. “I’m the one who is pregnant! I get to make all the decisions! Is that what you’re saying? Because too freaking bad, buddy. I want to hear what you have to say.” He was aware that he sounded a hysterical and the angry expression blooming on Derek’s face was proof of it. “You should tell me what you’ve been thinking first.” Having ranted a bit, he did feel a little better. Stiles crossed his arms over his chest and prompted, “Go on.”

“All right,” Derek growled. “I want to know how long we can keep this between us.”

That, Stiles hadn’t been expecting and the miniscule amount that his mood had improved was gone. “Wh… What?”

“How long can we keep your pregnancy a secret?” Derek asked, saying each word as if it were a sentence itself.

Stiles blinked rapidly as tears stung his eyes. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“I wouldn’t have asked…”

“Derek,” Stiles threw himself out of his chair and moved to sit on the desk top so that he was closer to the Alpha. “My mother is a werewolf, which you are completely aware of. Though I definitely want to keep the pregnancy between my family, your pack and your parents until I’m further along, I have to tell my mom!”

Derek shook his head. “You don’t have to. There are ways that I can help you hide it, just for a couple of months.”

Stiles knew that if he wasn’t so angry with Derek, he’d probably be crying. “ _Ways_ , as in, I go to Deaton and ask him for some of that oil that can hide scents, which is usually only prescribed to people who plan to have abortions, or to battered men and women trying to hide from werewolves?”

Derek looked shocked. “I didn’t realize that was the reason it was only available as a prescription. Look is it possible that you tell your parents, your friends even, but you don’t tell them I’m the father? Not yet, anyway.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Oh, that’s possible,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “But it isn’t going to happen!”

Derek bristled. “If you could just think about this from my perspective for a moment…”

“Fuck your perspective!” Stiles yelled, standing up and waving his arms. “What happened to, ‘I’ll support you, Stiles. I’ll support whatever decision you make, Stiles. I’ll be there for you, Stiles.’ I may be questioning being a parent to this baby, because shit is different now that it’s real, but that isn’t because I’m selfish and want to make sure my fiancé doesn’t leave me for the hundredth time!”

“That is not why I want to wait,” Derek replied, but the excuse was weak.

“Don’t lie about it, Derek. There’s no point.”

“There is a point that I’m trying to make and you wanted me to talk, but now you won’t let me.”

“Because what you’ve said…” Stiles couldn’t find words that would in any way adequately describe how disgusted he was with Derek’s suggestions. He settled on saying, “What you’ve said to me, it’s fucked up. It barely deserves my time to reply, but I’m going to, because maybe you really are a good guy and you’re so terrified about our situation that it’s causing you to act like the world’s biggest jackass and not think with a full deck, or whatever that saying is.”

“Stiles…” Derek rubbed his hands over his face. “This isn’t how I wanted to…”

“Be quiet before you fuck this up more than you already have,” Stiles warned. “What I’m about to say isn’t some kind of ploy to get you to support me, or to get you to keep your promises. I want you to understand that.” He leaned forward, so he was inches from Derek’s face. “I’m only twenty-four and I’m not ready to be a father because I’m afraid that I’m still too much like a child myself. Derek, unlike you, I’m not pretending to act like a man, or an Alpha. Whatever reasons you want to tell yourself you have for wanting me to hide my pregnancy, for you wanting to hide that you’re the father of the baby, they’re absolute bullshit lies. You’re afraid to admit to your fiancé and your pack that we had an accident and you’re willing to lie to people you claim to love, and hide your own flesh and blood, because you’re scared of the consequences.”

~OOOOO~

Derek stared at Stiles in disbelief. He’d known that what he wanted to do about the pregnancy wouldn’t be what Stiles wanted to hear, but he’d hoped that Stiles would understand he needed time. Yesterday, when he’d fallen to his knees and presented his neck to Stiles, it had been an act of submission, but only to make Stiles feel safe with him. He realized now that he was undoing all of that. He felt like Stiles had reached into his chest and pulled his heart out, along with the truth. Everything he was hiding from, Stiles had found it and laid it out before them both so easily. 

Stiles backed away from him, smelling like disgust and disappointment. “Last night I came to a realization, at the time I thought I could tell you about it, hoped that you would understand that my feelings may change, but now…” Stiles shook his head back and forth slowly. “It’s so obvious you don’t want this baby, Derek.”

Though Derek felt like his body’s natural functions couldn’t possibly work, he knew that he had to protest what Stiles said. There was hardly any breath in his lungs to help him speak it, but he pushed the words out, “I want the baby!”

“No, you don’t!” Stiles shouted, holding a hand up in a stop gesture. “You can’t twist what you said to me. I already know some people are going to see me as an ignorant slut once they realize I’m pregnant, but to suggest that I act as though I don’t know who the father is, that’s fucked up. Wanting me to lie to everyone I know and basically tell Dr. Deaton that I’m an abuse victim or something…”

“That’s not what I wanted!” Derek yelled, his body starting to recover from the emotional onslaught Stiles had rained upon him. “I didn’t know that’s what the oil was for, I told you. I don’t even know much about that stuff, I just thought it might be an option. Fuck, I just wanted us to work something out, just for a little bit while I get my head on straight. I’m sorry.” He was a sorry piece of shit and it was going to take a lot for him to redeem himself. “I freaked out and you’re right, I’m fucking selfish and I wasn’t acting like a man or an Alpha. But I want to!”

Stiles stepped backward until his body came in contact with the wall across from Derek. He slid down the wood paneled wall slowly, coming to rest with his butt on the floor and his legs drawn up to his chest. Stiles stared up at Derek with pools of tears in his eyes and a few drops making their way down his face. “This isn’t going to work,” he said. “This baby is going to ruin your life and I’m not all that sure that I won’t fuck up and ruin its life.”

“No, it really won’t.” Derek hated what he’d done to Stiles. He hated himself for giving into his own fears, for being selfish and going back on what he’d ardently promised him that day in the hotel. He moved gradually as he stood from his chair, walked over to Stiles and knelt on the floor beside him. He wanted to give Stiles as many opportunities as he could to stop his movements if he didn’t want him in his space.

“It will,” Stiles said, using the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face off. “Everything is going to be fucked up.”

“Stiles, I’m sorry for being such an asshole. Some stuff happened this morning with Monica and it made my mind go a little crazy and you were right about everything you said. I know you may not believe me right now, but I’ll make it up to you, you’ll see. I will support you and the decisions you make about this pregnancy. But I think you’re wrong about not being a good parent. You’re already fiercely protecting the baby from my absolute stupidity.”

“Then it better get my brains,” Stiles said in a serious, yet groggy voice.

Derek nodded emphatically. “Can you come over to couch with me and sit so that we can talk about how we’re going to tell the people closest to us? It can’t be comfortable for you sitting on the cold floor.”

Stiles nodded and held out his hand; Derek took it and helped him stand with him. He continued holding onto Stiles’ hand until they reached the sofa. “This doesn’t mean I’m forgiving you for being a dick, but I meant what I told you, that I know you’re not thinking clearly because you’re scared.”

“I am,” Derek admitted, and it was surprisingly easy. If there was anyone else in the world that felt as terrified as he did, it was the man sitting beside him. “And I understand that you can’t forgive me for saying what I did, or for breaking my promises to you, when you counted on me keeping them. Hopefully, one day you’ll forgive me, but I realize that I’m going to have to earn that forgiveness.”

Stiles positioned his body so he relaxed against the end of the couch and hugged his legs, resting his chin on the indent between his knees, making him look much younger than he was. “I know what I suggested and I shouldn’t have been such a dick about it, even if you hurt me, but, do you really think that Monica will leave you when you tell her about the pregnancy?”

Derek knew the answer to Stiles’ question with absolute conviction. The answer had been the push that had him taking a giant leap out of the realm of sanity, only to end up crashing and burning at Stiles’ feet. “Yes.” His heart tightened in his chest to a painful degree. It hurt so much more speaking it than it had when he first came to the conclusion earlier that morning.

Stiles’ mouth hung open and he looked like he was going to speak, but he said nothing for a couple of seconds. “Will it… Will it be because she’ll look at our hook-up as you cheating on her?”

“No.” Though Monica might try to spin their encounter that way, it wouldn’t be the reason she’d give for leaving him. “Stiles, everyone in the damn town knows that I’m dragging her to the altar.”

Stiles actually looked surprised at his response. “Dragging her? Again, I know what I inferred before, but honestly I only said that to hurt you. Truthfully, I don’t know much about your relationship. I figured that Monica is like me and just needed to spread her wings some before she settled down.”

Derek snorted. “She’s nothing like you.” A sour look appeared on Stiles’ face and Derek quickly explained, “That isn’t a cut-down to you. Honestly, I don’t really know you. I know your parents and some of your friends, but I don’t know you all that well.”

“Except in the biblical sense,” Stiles supplied, wiggling his eyebrows.

Derek cracked a small smile. “Yeah.” He really didn’t need his mind to go there. “I’m just trying to say that from what I do know of you, you’re much different from Monica. She doesn’t much care about being a part of a pack, or a family. She knew that I had ultimatums this time when we got back together. The ultimatums included marriage and one day a family.”

“I wouldn’t be opposed to her being a step-mother to the baby,” Stiles said. “Or… or maybe if I don’t want to, which I don’t I can, so. Derek, I was thinking that you two could raise the baby together.”

Derek felt extremely dismayed hearing the idea because it meant that Stiles truly thought it would be a better alternative to him raising child, too. “No, Stiles. When Monica and I talked about having children, before I officially accepted her back, she said she’d want to wait two or three years, before she decided if she really wanted to raise children at all. I compromised about that, because I thought that once we were married she’d be more settled and start to want them too.”

“I see,” Stiles said, tone dry. “I don’t understand it how you could compromise on wanting something like that though. But maybe it’s because I’ve never been in ‘real love’.”

“Real love?” Derek asked.

“Yeah, the all-encompassing, long-lasting romantic love you and Monica must have.”

“That’s why you’re not like her,” Derek stated, and laughed sadly. He’d talked about him and Monica’s relationship with far too many people over the years, but talking to Stiles about it was so much different. As he was saying these things aloud, he was seeing them in a different light. “I honestly don’t know if our relationship is any of those things. I think I wanted them to be, but how can they be if I know for certain that me bringing a child into relationship is a deal-breaker?”

“I guess that maybe it’s not,” Stiles agreed. “So, do you think you should you tell her before we tell anyone else?”

“No,” Derek decided after a few seconds of internal debate. “I think we should tell your parents and friends first.”

“Not all my friends,” Stiles protested. “I’ll probably call Camden later tonight…”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Derek questioned.

“No, he was my roommate in San Diego and he’s one of my best friends. He was there with me when I took the pregnancy test.”

Derek smelled a wave of guilt hovering around Stiles. “Why do you feel guilty?”

Stiles balked. “Duh, because somehow I managed to fuck up the test. If I hadn’t, knowing how Monica would feel about the baby, you wouldn’t have gotten back together with her. You wouldn’t be in the position you’re in now.”

“You didn’t fuck it up,” Derek said. “Those tests aren’t always accurate so early on. It may have taken longer for the elevated hormones to present themselves in your body, especially if the baby is human.”

Stiles eyes widened. This whole time he’d been thinking the baby would definitely be a werewolf. He’d forgotten about that being a reason for why the test may have come up negative at the time. “Oh, well we’d really be beating the odds then, wouldn’t we?”

“We already did with you getting pregnant in the first place,” Derek said. “So, other than Camden, what other friends are you going to tell?”

“None,” Stiles instantly spoke. “Danny won’t know I’m pregnant because he’s not a werewolf.”

“What about your friends Scott and Allison?” Derek asked gently, understanding that it would be a tough situation for Stiles.

“I want to wait a little while, even though he’s my best friend, he’s so busy lately that I rarely see him. It’s going to be really fucking hard to tell them that I got accidentally pregnant with a baby I didn’t want, when they just miscarried one.”

Derek gave Stiles’ wrist a comforting squeeze. “I’ll be there with you for that, whenever you decide its time, if you want me there.”

“I’ll get back to you on that,” Stiles said. “We should probably tell my parents as soon as possible. My mom texted me this morning and she says that she’s being intuitive and doesn’t believe I caught a cold. It needs to be super soon because if another werewolf does smell it and tells her about it before I do, she’ll never forgive me.”

“Then we’ll tell your parents first. I’ll go with you.”

“Are you looking to get shot?” Stiles asked. “You know that one of the guns in my father’s holster is filled with wolfsbane bullets, right?”

“That’s a pretty standard way to load your pistols when you work in law enforcement,” Derek said. “I’m well-aware of the fact that your father is likely going to hate me, work me harder than he already does and only refrain himself from shooting me because he hates doing paperwork and wouldn’t want to explain discharging his service weapon.”

Stiles laughed, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “You know my father pretty well.”

“Yes, I do.” Derek also knew that Sam kept a civilian handgun filled with wolfsbane bullets and hoped like hell he wouldn’t be the recipient of one. “When do you want to tell them?”

“Really, I know that I could use some more time to myself to take all this in, but I don’t have it and I’d be a hypocrite suggesting it.”

“Hey,” Derek said sternly. “There’s a difference between you wanting to wait a few days and me being a complete coward about it.”

“Yeah, but waiting means lying to my mom and dad. I sort of lied to them by omission about my job in San Diego and me and my mom had a heart-to-heart about it and I basically promised not to do that to her about the big things in my life. This is the first chance I have since then to show her that I’m strong enough to trust that they’ll love me and support me, no matter what. I can’t fuck that up.”

“Is she going to be mad about you lying about the cold?” Derek asked.

“No,” Stiles said, confident. “She’ll give me lee-way this one time as soon as she smells me.”

“Do you want to go see them now?” Derek asked.

“Yes,” Stiles said and unfolded his legs. He squirmed around a little and then pulled his phone from the back pocket of his pants. He took a deep breath in and then out and looked up at Derek with a resolved expression. “I’m going to text her and tell her that I’ll be coming by to talk to her and Dad.”

“Okay,” Derek said, beginning to feel nervous.

Stiles laughed. “Wow, now that my emotions aren’t all over the place, I can feel yours so effortlessly again. Try not to be nervous yet, this is just a text message.”

“Really?” Derek asked, surprised. He’d only acknowledged that feeling for a fleeting moment and it wasn’t even that strong.

Stiles nodded in answer to Derek as he typed on his phone. “I’m also telling her that even if her werewolf powers know what’s up first, that she needs to let me tell my dad before she says anything.”

“That sounds suspicious,” Derek said. “Don’t you think she’s going to guess that you’re pregnant?”

A binging noise came from Stiles’ phone. He huffed out a laugh. “Nope. She thinks I got another tattoo and that she’s going to smell my pain or something.” Stiles gave him a wide-eyed expression. “Are you ready for this?”

Derek rolled his eyes. “Not at all.”

Stiles reached out and took Derek’s hand. “Good. I’m not the only one.”

TBC

AN: (After I wrote this chapter, when I was looking for some quotes or old wise sayings about pregnancy, I ran into this old wives tale. I wanted to share it because of how perfect it is regarding the first paragraph and later too. ‘If a mother drinks a lot of coffee while pregnant, the baby will be born with many moles.’)


	6. Caution

**Gravidity  
Chapter Five: “Caution”**

_If you call one wolf, you invite the pack._ ~ Bulgarian Proverb on Caution

**Monday, January 20, 2020**

Derek could hear Claudia and Sam talking to one another inside the house as soon as he stepped out of the Stiles’ Jeep.

“Why is Derek Hale with Stiles?” Claudia asked. “Is there something work-related that Stiles is helping with?”

“No,” the Sheriff answered. “I have no idea… Oh shit, while I was gone Stiles might’ve been snooping in my office and found that cold case file on Harris. He better not have been investigating that and has dragged Hale into it.”

“I don’t think that’s it,” Claudia spoke worriedly. “Stiles is… he’s holding Derek’s hand now and they look upset.”

Derek stopped walking and looked down at their joined hands. He had no idea when that happened.

“….happened to one of the Hales?” the Sheriff asked. “Though I don’t know why Stiles would know about it.”

“They’re coming up the steps now, get away from the windows, Sam.”

“I’m sure Derek knows we’re watching, his hearing is just as good as yours,” the Sheriff reminded his wife.

“Please go get the hot rolls out of the oven and finish the soup while I let them in,” Claudia said.

“They’re talking about us, aren’t they?” Stiles asked Derek.

“Yes,” Derek said as they walked up the front porch steps. He wondered if he should release Stiles’ hand, but he really didn’t want to and they’d already seen the gesture anyway. There were a lot of comforting vibes coming from Stiles and the physical touch amplified them. He was man enough to admit that he really needed that comfort at the moment.

“Hmm, oh well.” Stiles gave Derek’s hand a squeeze. “I guess I don’t blame them. It’s pretty weird that we’re showing up here together.”

The door opened with a flourish and Claudia stood in the open doorway, her gaze zeroed in on Stiles, a shocked expression on her face. “Stiles,” she said her son’s name the way someone might utter a prayer. She took a noticeable deep breath, likely breathing in the scent she must have smelled from Stiles even before she’d opened the door to them. Her nostrils flared, her eyes flashed gold for a second and then she shook her head a bit. “Oh, Stiles.”

“Hi, Mom,” Stiles said in a shy voice. He dropped Derek’s hand, but didn’t move to cross the distance between him and his mother. “Where’s dad?” he asked, and Derek sensed the immediate drop in Stiles’ calm, being replaced rapidly by a mixture of emotions Derek couldn’t pinpoint.

“Your father,” Claudia closed her eyes and sagged against the door jam, her nails lengthening into claws as she held onto the door handle. “Your father is checking on lunch.” She opened her eyes once again, no longer filled with tears, and then squared her posture. “Please come in before you truly catch a cold, Stiles.” She eyed Derek with a heated look. “And I suppose you’re welcome to come in for lunch too, Deputy Hale.”

Stiles took Derek’s hand again and pulled him inside, following his mother. “Thanks, Mom.” Derek watched them exchange a look before Claudia turned her back on them.

“Yes, thank you for having me over as well, Mrs. Stilinski. I know it’s a surprise to have me here,” Derek said.

“Oh, it’s a surprise all right,” Claudia said, looking over her shoulder at them with a tortured expression and blazing golden eyes. “One we’re going to talk about immediately.”

“Yes, mom,” Stiles agreed with a high-pitched tone as they walked into the living room. “That’d be good. Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could eat until… Well, yeah, we’ll need Dad though.”

“Certainly, and I’ll have to get another place setting for the table,” Claudia told them, halting in the middle of the room. She turned back around to face them and Derek could feel her desperation, but her eyes were back to her regular honey-brown color and her claws were once again fingernails. She obviously wanted to go to Stiles, was battling her instincts, but kept them in check. “Stiles hang up your coats in the closet and then join us in the dining room.”

Derek knew Mrs. Stilinski in three different ways. He knew her first and foremost as the Sheriff’s wife, a woman who was given the type of respect one gave a Queen, whenever she visited the station, by every single person there. Even criminals notorious for causing trouble when they were arrested and waiting to be booked didn’t dare disrespect her and usually quieted down in her presence. During Sam’s run for Sheriff years ago, Claudia showed herself to be an intelligent, witty, strong woman. During the campaign, she would correctly and thoughtfully answer questions about laws and policy changes, often with more truth and intellect than her husband’s direct opponents. The Sheriff constantly spoke of Claudia and declared that she was the reason he’d been voted in.

Derek also knew Claudia as the slightly nerdy, florist and horticulture enthusiast. Once a month, she teamed up with his brother-in-law, Landon, and gave free classes on a myriad of subjects, at the Nursery he owned. In a time when growing your own food and flowers seemed more popular than it had ever been in the modern era, their classes drew dozens of people to Thurston Nursery. The business had been in Landon’s family for almost fifty years, but the recession hit it hard and people seemed to forget it existed. With Claudia’s shop being in the center of town, she was able to connect with the townspeople and advertise for the nursery in ways Landon couldn’t. With her recommendation and the classes, Landon had been able to pull the Nursery out of the red a year ago and was able to expand it to offer landscape design as part of the Nursery’s service.

Claudia was also the woman whom Cora connected with in ways that she couldn’t with her mother or sister, because they were both classified as Omegas. Cora had an Omega bond with her husband ad mate, Isaac, but she’d never had any Omega females that she was close to until she began working at Chamomile. Cora had been a rambunctious teenager, with very little direction in her life, always getting in trouble at school, until she found her way to Chamomile. Claudia began teaching her all about flowers and Cora fell in love with the artistry that went into maintaining flowers and creating bouquets. Now Cora worked full-time at Chamomile, and went to college part-time. Claudia also introduced Cora to Allison, whom she soon shared an Omega bond with too. His little sister was as settled and happy as he’d ever seen her and Derek knew much of that change was because of Claudia’s guidance and influence.

Derek hadn’t got a chance to know Claudia as the wonderful mother he knew she was, from the first moment she talked to him about Stiles. She was devoted, kind, and had a humorous approach to raising children, or so he gleaned from all the stories the Sheriff told at the station, but until now he hadn’t seen her mothering in action. Perhaps the right way to say that is that he hadn’t felt her mothering in person, because the protective vibes she gave off were at the level of an Alpha’s. Even though she’d left the immediate vicinity, he could feel her power and her warning.

“You all right,” Stiles asked in a soft voice as he shrugged out of his coat.

Derek just looked at Stiles and rolled his eyes, because really how could he be all right? He was about to sit down and tell his boss, a boss whom he considered friend, that he knocked up his only son and no, they weren’t together and didn’t plan to marry.

Stiles shrugged and snickered quietly. “At least you’re not their kid,” he told Derek. “Let me take your coat.”

“Because telling my parents and pack is going to be a walk in the park,” Derek mumbled, aware that Claudia was likely listening to their conversation. “I guess it probably will be compared to what it’s going to be like telling Monica.”

“True that,” Stiles commiserated as he hung both of their jackets up in the closet. He then held out his hand to Derek. “Ready?”

Derek took a deep steadying breath and gripped Stiles’ hand. He may hear a lot of disapproval from the Sheriff and Claudia, but this was his first renewed chance to show Stiles that he could support him, not wallow in his own feelings. He projected all the strength and safety he could manage and confidentially answered, “Yes.”

~OOOOO~

Stiles was surprised that his father didn’t immediately ask questions as he and Derek took seats across from his mother at the table. His dad stood, serving large helpings of soup into each of their bowls, appearing oblivious to the tension around him. Stiles felt dumbstruck at the dismissal of their impromptu guest and his obvious strife. His father rarely missed an opportunity to uncover a truth, especially where Stiles’ life was concerned. He doubted his mother went back on her word and told him while they were in the kitchen together, no way would his father be so ease. Stiles could hardly meet his mother’s intense stare, nor could he begin to think of anything to say that might diffuse the strain between his mom, Derek and himself. This was torture.

“Soup’s getting cold,” His dad said as he took his seat. He reaching for the basket piled high with steaming sweet rolls. “Eat up and then we can talk about whatever it is you’ve got Derek involved in.”

His mom snorted. “What Stiles got Derek involved in?” she asked steely.

Sam dropped the roll he had in his hand back into the basket and stared at his wife. “Claudia?”

His mother shook her head and gave Stiles and then Derek a pointed look. “Stiles, I think we’ll discuss why we have a guest for lunch, first. It doesn’t look like either of you are very motivated to eat anyhow.”

Stiles couldn’t stop himself from glaring at his mother. ‘Thanks for throwing me under the bus,’ he thought.

“What happened?” His dad asked, his face rapidly paling. He looked back and forth between Stiles and Derek. “Oh no, please tell me that you didn’t bite my kid, Hale!”

“What? No!” Derek said from beside him.

Stiles dropped Derek’s hand which he’d been holding under the table. “Dad, you know I only want the bite if it’s my only…”

“Then what is it?” his father asked. “Obviously your mother knows.”

Stiles felt Derek trail his hand up his back and then rest at his neck. He reveled in the safe aura Derek fed him and spoke, “I’m pregnant.” Before his father could say anything he added, “Derek is the other father.”

Derek’s hand fell away from his skin and Stiles almost laughed at how quickly Derek’s aura changed from strength, safety and comfort to absolute fear.

“Pregnant?” His father banged his fists on the table and glared at Stiles. “Are you some kind of home-wrecker, kid?”

“Sam!” His mom shouted, eyes flashing gold. “You know damn well that isn’t the kin dof person Stiles is!”

“Then what happened?” his father asked in a demanding tone. “Stiles, I know you used to drag Scott to watch Derek’s basketball games in high school. You’ve always had a crush on him, and he’s got a damn fiancé, so how the hell did it happen?”

Stiles had gotten on his father’s bad side before; he’d even made his father so angry at points that his dad wouldn’t speak to him for days, but never had his dad accused him of anything so terrible, or looked at him with such disappointment on his face. He felt like his heart was breaking into a million pieces and if it weren’t for Derek grabbing his hand and grounding him, he would’ve ran out of the house.

“It happened while Monica and I were broke up, sir,” Derek spoke up, a growl tinting his words. “Stiles and I were both more than willing and he didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Even if Derek and Monica were together at the time,” his mom spat out, “it wouldn’t have been only Stiles’ fault. Monica only cares about Derek and their relationship when it suits her!”

“Mrs. Stilinski,” Derek gasped. “Please don’t…”

“I’ll talk about whatever I chose to in my house, Deputy Hale,” his mom said.

“Mom, that’s not… Derek’s relationship with her has nothing to do with this!”

“It has everything to do with this,” his mother said and pointed at Derek. “Do you think if his relationship wasn’t so messed up that you’d be in this mess?”

“It isn’t a mess,” Stiles told her. “Please, just can everyone calm down and stop throwing accusations around? Mom, Dad, I really don’t want to start sobbing like a baby, but I’m really close to losing my grip. I knew you’d take this badly, I figured you would, but I didn’t think you’d be so mean about it.”

“What are you planning on doing?” his father asked, looking at Derek.

“We’re keeping this between my pack, my parents and you for now,” Derek said. “Stiles is very early on in the pregnancy and we’ve got a lot of things to work through.”

“And Monica?” his mother asked. “When are you going to tell her?”

“I’ll tell her tonight,” Derek said. He looked at Stiles and asked, “Are you all right? You’re shaking pretty badly.”

Stiles hadn’t noticed his physical reaction to everything going on around him, but now that Derek drew his attention to it, he noticed it. The hand he held Derek’s with looked like it was vibrating against Derek’s skin. “I… I think…”

“Oh, Stiles,” his mother’s voice interrupted him. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to feel so upset. I know it can’t be good for you and I shouldn’t have reacted so poorly.”

Stiles looked across the table at her and felt so angry with his parents. “This was an accident,” he told her. “We don’t deserve to be treated like children.”

“You’re our child,” his father spoke, still angry but looking at him with a milder expression. “This would be a shock to any parent, but Stiles you and Derek aren’t even in a relationship and just a week ago you were telling your mother and I that you wanted to take the rest of your twenties to figure out what you wanted in life.”

“That’s why I’m not sure if I’m going to raise it,” Stiles said and held up his hand before his parents could say a word. “I… I really want your support, but this is going to be my decision and Derek has agreed to support whatever decision I make.”

“What exactly does that mean though?” his mom asked, sounding like she was about to cry. “Are you going to terminate the pregnancy?”

“I honestly thought about it,” Stiles admitted. “But no, I’m going to take some time to think about what I want. I don’t know how long that’s going to take, but Derek has promised to be there for me.”

“Derek, you’re prepared to be a single father if Stiles doesn’t want to raise the baby?” his father asked.

“I will, if that’s what Stiles wants. Whatever Stiles wants, whatever role he wants me to have in the baby’s life, that’s what I’ll do,” Derek said adamantly. “I just want him and the baby to be safe.”

“Stiles, I know you probably think you can’t talk to us,” his mom said. “We’ve given you good reason to think that now. I’m not going to make excuses for your dad and me, but remember what I told you not long ago. There’s nothing you can’t talk to us about and I’m sorry if you won’t be able to share this experience with us…”

“I’m so sorry, son, for what I implied about you,” his dad said, his eyes filled with tears. “I’ll never forgive myself for saying that to you.”

“It isn’t okay,” Stiles said. If he could give Derek a break and a second-chance, he had to give his parents the same. “I’d appreciate it if you guys would be less volatile about the situation, but even more I’d appreciate you being here for me like you always are because I’m really going to need you.”

“Of course we will be,” his dad said, standing up from his chair.

Stiles’ mother actually hopped over the table to get to him and before he knew it, he was wrapped in both of his parents arms crying. Even though the embrace he shared with his parents made their arms turn at awkward angles, Derek never let go of his hand.

~OOOOO~

After the emotional event at the Stilinski home, Derek wasn’t sure he could handle more emotional trauma, but he had no choice. Stiles offered to go with Derek, but there was no way Derek was going to put Stiles through more than he’d already dealt with. Though things calmed down and even became somewhat pleasant after the initial outbursts, Stiles looked about ready to collapse by the time they left. Derek ended up driving Stiles’ Jeep back to his house and they made plans to see one another the following day.

Derek took care of telling Cora and Isaac while he waited for Monica to return home. Telling his best friend and little sister was drastically different from what it had been like to tell Sam and Claudia and from how it would likely be to tell his parents and Monica. Cora and Isaac were happy for him, thrilled that they would have a little baby to add to their small sub-pack, and they gave Derek the love and encouragement he was now desperately clinging to as he heard Monica walk into the apartment.

“Derek!” she called out.

Derek gave himself one more moment of peace before he placed the book he’d been reading onto his nightstand and walked out of the bedroom. He saw Monica bent at the waist, standing in front of the open refrigerator.

“I should’ve asked you to get groceries today,” she said. “There’s nothing to eat and I really worked up an appetite shopping. Not that I found anything I liked, it was exhausting.” She stood to her full height and turned to face him, kicking the fridge door shut behind her. “How about we order pizza, tonight?” She walked toward him, her hips swaying in the way they did whenever she wanted to get his libido roaring. “We can snuggle up under a blanket, watch a movie and see if your day of relaxing gets a happy ending.”

Derek actually felt like crying, the emotion came on so strongly it was all he could do to stop himself. “Monica.” He wanted a happy ending, not just to this fucked up day, which was far from over, but for his life. That’s why he’d been so fiercely holding onto hope with his relationship with her. He’d done all he could not to scare her away forever, he let her be free whenever she needed to be, because he loved her and he wanted her to be with him forever. He’d wanted to make a happy ending with her, but that wasn’t possible now and he realized that it may not have ever been. The enormity of all that was about to change within the next few minutes hit him physically and Derek stumbled backward, knocking into the side table beside the couch.

Monica’s saucy grin was replaced with one of shock. “Derek, are you okay?”

When she reached out to touch him, Derek flinched away from her. “No, I’m not okay. We need to talk.”

“If it’s about what I said this morning, don’t worry. I’m not mad anymore, okay.”

She tried again to touch him but Derek moved out of her reach. “Don’t. This has nothing to do with what happened this morning.” He pointed the couch. “Can we sit down, please?” 

“Sure, of course,” she said, eyes wide with worry. “Just try and calm down a little, you’re giving off some really weird vibes and it’s making my instinct to challenge you kick in.

Derek sat as far from her on the sofa as he could and in the most non-threatening pose possible because he couldn’t change how he felt. “This is about what happened during the time we were broke up.” Derek felt like he was speaking with a mouth full of cotton, but he wasn’t about to get himself a drink, he’d likely throw up anything he consumed.

Monica’s concerned gaze turned flippant and she rolled her eyes. “Have you been stalking my Facebook page? Derek, that guy in the pictures is my cousin’s best friend, Franklin. He’s gay and so were all the other guys in those pictures. You really don’t need to be territorial about him touching me; he isn’t even a werewolf, so you really have nothing to be upset about.”

Derek had no idea what pictures Monica was talking about and he didn’t care. “No, this isn’t about whatever it was you were doing. This is about what I did.”

“Oh god,” Monica chuckled. “Please tell me that you didn’t hook up with some chick that is now stalking you. I really don’t want to deal with that drama while I’m planning this wedding.”

Derek couldn’t stand it any longer. Monica just kept drawing her own conclusions and though she knew he was upset, at the same time she seemed oblivious to how fucked up he actually was. He would have to just say it all, put it out there and hope he’d be able to deal with the damage. “I slept with an Omega named, Stiles. He was the photographer at Cora’s wedding and we both intended for it to be a one-night thing. We realized a condom broke the next morning, he took a test a week later and it came out negative. Yesterday, I went to his shop to warn him that you’d be coming by because I knew it would be awkward if he did the photography at our wedding and I smelled his pregnancy. He’s pregnant with my child.”

~OOOOO~

**Tuesday, January 21, 2020**

The word groggy was too little of a word to describe how tired Stiles felt when he woke up to the sound of his doorbell ringing and someone knocking on his door. “Fucking two fifteen in the morning, of course,” he grumbled, glaring at his bedside alarm clock. “I’m coming!” he yelled, in case it was a werewolf at his door and Stiles was pretty sure that it was. This fact was confirmed when the knocking and chimes immediately stopped.

He wasn’t sure where his phone was, so it was possible whatever reason there was someone at his door in the middle of the night was due to a true emergency, but Stiles doubted he was so lucky. It was more than likely, Derek, wanting someone to talk to or maybe even somewhere to crash, if things went as badly with Monica and his parents as he’d told Stiles they would.

Stiles took the time to put on his fuzzy Hulk slippers and warm Batman robe. It cost way too much money to keep the whole house heated, so he only had the baseboard heat on his room and there was no way he was gonna go downstairs and freeze his ass off just because his unwelcome guest was impatient. As Stiles descended the staircase, he could see out one of the windows and the only car parked at his house was his own Jeep. If it were Derek, he would’ve driven his vehicle. A werewolf, that he didn’t know was outside his door and he was idiotically going to just answer the door?

“Stiles,” came a woman’s voice from the other side of the door. “I can hear your heartbeat skyrocketing, calm down.”

Stiles knew the voice, but he couldn’t place it and the fact that the werewolf was listening to his heartbeat freaked him out even more.

“Stiles, its Talia Hale, please calm down and answer the door.”

Knowing that it was Talia wasn’t a huge relief, but it was enough of one to ease his fright and he continued his path down the staircase and toward the door. Then his brain kicked in and all sorts of horrific scenarios regarding Derek’s safety began playing out in his mind. “Is Derek all right?” he asked, opening the door.

Talia stood on his porch, her frame back-lit from the outside lamps, making her front a complete shadow with the exception of her glowing red eyes. “Derek isn’t injured if that’s what you’re wondering,” she said in a smooth tone.

Stiles felt his body break out in goose bumps, from the cold air coming from outside, but also from Talia’s voice. He’s never heard her speak in her Alpha tone, but he was certain that was what she was using now. He wasn’t sure what to do. If Derek was safe, whatever Talia needed could wait until the morning, couldn’t it?

“It would be nice if you invited me in,” Talia suggested.

Stiles sighed and backed up a few steps while gesturing her to enter. “I guess you should come in then.” 

“Thank you.” Talia stepped into the dark foyer, her red eyes trained on him. “I’d say I’m sorry to inconvenience you at this time of night, but I’m not.

Stiles jerked at that statement and hit the lights for the room. His eyes adjusted quicker than hers could and he looked her over. She was dressed in a pair of black sweat pants, a dark blue sweater and her hair was lay in a messy braid down one shoulder. The thing that stood out the most about her unkempt appearance however was her feet, her bare, dirty feet. He wondered if he should ask her to wipe them on welcome mat, but decided that whatever she came to say would just have to be said in the foyer. “Why are you here? You realize I was sleeping, right?”

Talia crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him as if he were prey. “It must’ve been nice to be able to sleep. Myself, well I wasn’t able to because I’ve been trying to run off my anger.”

Stiles realized where this conversation was headed, but he wasn’t going to show the woman his fear. He stepped backward onto the staircase and took a seat so that he could appear unbothered by her posturing. “After you ran off your anger, you decided to pay me a visit, why?”

“I want to know your endgame,” Talia said, letting her hands drop to her sides, her claws fully extended.

“My what?” Stiles wasn’t scared, he knew that Talia would never hurt him, he was carrying her grandchild and she was friends with his mother, but the accusation did scare him.

“Your endgame,” Talia said. “As in, what are you trying to get out of my son?”

“Excuse me?” Stiles popped back to a standing position, because no, no way was he going to sit down and take her crap. “I’m not trying to get anything from Derek!”

“You were in charge of the condoms that night, he told me! Then you freak out that morning about being pregnant, give him some bullshit about the Plan B pill not being an option for you…”

“That wasn’t bullshit,” Stiles hissed, and if he had fangs he was sure he’d be showing them to her. “I gave Derek legitimate reasons why I didn’t want to take it. I was in the middle of moving, of taking over Silver Linings to help my friend who just miscarried one of her twins, I couldn’t possibly be stuck in a hospital for at least a week and risk becoming infertile!”

“Why do you care about being infertile?” Talia demanded, her tanned face reddening. “Derek told us that you’re not even sure if you want to be a parent to the child.”

“Just because I don’t want to be a parent right now, and my mind isn’t made up on that yet, either way it doesn’t mean I never want to have a child.”

“Okay, I believe you,” Talia said, sounding almost disappointed. “So then you told him that you weren’t pregnant, you find out that he’s engaged to his long-time girlfriend, and then you just so happen to appear pregnant… You know, after everything Derek already had to lose, after what he gave your…”

“None of that was my fault,” Stiles told her, getting angrier by the second. “I could be carrying a human, which might be why the first test I took didn’t detect the hormones and for your information, I was happy that she finally said yes to him! I may not have lived here the last couple of years, but you’d have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to know what people say about him behind his back. Hell, people say shitty about his relationship to his face. They act like it’s his fault that she doesn’t see what a great guy he is and cherish the chance to be mated to someone like him! They act like there’s something wrong with him for being loyal and hopeful! I didn’t want Derek to walk into my shop on Sunday and tell me that I’m pregnant!” Stiles rubbed at his stinging eyes and gave her a steely look. “This isn’t a game, this is my life, my incredibly scary and fucked up life.”

Talia looked him up and down and her tight mouth relaxed slightly. “So if I tell you right now that Monica did what Derek predicted, and left him, will that give you hope for you to have a relationship with him?”

Stiles balked. “Are you serious? I may have lusted after Derek when I was younger, but I wasn’t the only one in town who thought he was gorgeous! The whole reason we decided our night together would be one single night is because neither of us wanted more. I don’t have time for a relationship with anyone and I certainly have no delusions about creating one with someone who is broken-hearted and also the father of my child. I may be young and I may not be ready to be a parent, but I do know that it wouldn’t be good for our child if we got together just because that’s what the social or pack norm is for parents.”

Talia’s face brightened and her posture changed so dramatically, Stiles wondered if it were possible for werewolves to physically shift between forms of Bitch and Nice. “Stiles, I’m sorry for upsetting you, but you have to understand. Derek can be too nice sometimes, too trusting. I know your family very well and I didn’t want to think that you’d deliberately gotten yourself pregnant or that you’d hid your pregnancy to purposely hurt Derek’s life, but after Monica suggested it…”

“What?” Stiles interrupted Talia. “Monica? I don’t even know her! I’ve met her like three times, in passing, my whole life!”

“I realize it sounds very far-fetched and obviously Monica was wrong. I should’ve listened to Derek when he explained and protested all of that, but I just had to be sure that the first outsider Derek was letting into his pack is someone who can be trusted.”

“What are you talking about?” Stiles refrained from adding, ‘you crazy bitch’, because yeah, he was definitely feeling bitter and unforgiving toward the woman before him.

“You’re carrying his child, so no matter your relationship with him, at least for the duration of your pregnancy you’ll be a part of his pack. You’re not only a human, but a human who is surrounded by wolves that carry the Hale bloodline, but who aren’t a part of any sub-packs. Whether or not you’re carrying a werewolf, you are carrying a Hale and you need to be surrounded by pack through-out your pregnancy.”

“You’re making no sense,” Stiles told her. “You came into my home to say shitty things about me, to infer even worse and now you’re telling me some vague crap about needing to be sure I’m worthy to be in Derek’s pack or something?” Stiles was too tired to deal with this shit any longer.

“That’s not…”

“No,” Stiles cut Talia off and walked over to his door. He swung it open and pointed outside. “I had a really long and shitty day. I’m sorry if yours wasn’t all that great, but it seems like no one is actually getting it. I am pregnant. I have a little defenseless baby growing inside of me and I need to take care of myself and my baby. To do that, I need to be in a low-stress environment and I need rest. I absolutely don’t need to be woken up in the middle of the night and have my morals or whatever tested! You need to leave and I’d really appreciate it if you’d stay out of my life until I invite you back into it!”

Talia chuckled as she passed him. “If I couldn’t smell your pregnancy, I’d doubt that you’re an Omega.”

Stiles slammed the door shut after her and locked it. He debated finding his phone and calling Derek to tell him about his mother’s visit, but decided that could wait. He needed to go back to sleep, tomorrow was another day and he was sure his interactions with the people in Derek’s life wouldn’t end with Claudia.

~OOOOO~

Of course, Stiles was right. By the time he dressed for work the following morning, he had three missed calls from Cora, one from Laura, four missed calls from numbers he didn’t recognize and one ex-fiancé of Derek Hale sitting on the hood of what he presumed was her car.

“Good morning,” he said, stepping out onto his porch, his travel mug of coffee in one hand and his laptop bag and keys in the other.

Monica glared at him. “I suppose it’s a good morning for some of us,” she said, slipping off her car. “I remember you, now.”

Stiles shrugged that comment off as he stepped onto the gravel driveway and walked toward his Jeep.

“You had such a big crush on Derek,” she said as if it were a secret. It really wasn’t. “You were just a little runt back then, so it didn’t bother me none. I suppose now all your fantasies of him are coming true.”

“I don’t want Derek,” Stiles told her. Last night he knew that Talia wouldn’t hurt him, so he’d felt confident enough to stand up to her, but he wasn’t too sure about Monica.

“You can have him now!” Monica spat heatedly. “Or are you one of those people that only want what they can’t have?”

Stiles felt tempted to ask her the same question, but he didn’t fancy starting his day by getting his throat torn out. “Look, I’m sorry about how things turned out, but it was an accident and I really can’t do anything to change it.”

“But you could have made it so that the accident didn’t ever exist. Only, you were too much of a pussy to subject yourself to a small hospital stay. Now you’ve subjected all of the Hales to you! You’ve ruined my life and Derek’s life!” Monica seethed. She swept her blond hair away from where it’d blown into her eyes and revealed the change of them going from blue to glowing red. “Derek told me that you suggested we raise that bastard together, and for a split-second I considered it, but then I remembered the way you’d drool over him. You were so unapologetically horny for him it was disgusting! Do you think I want to deal with that for the rest of my life?”

If Stiles weren’t trying so desperately to keep his cool and to insure that he and his baby were safe, he would’ve launched himself at the woman for daring to call his child such a name. He didn’t care what she said about him, but his baby wasn’t a bastard. That was such a hateful old-world way of talking about children who were born out of marriages, it made him physically sick. “Monica, I’m not sure what you want me to say. There’s nothing I can say that will make this any better for you.”

“Oh, there’s something,” Monica said taking one slow step toward him. “You can tell me that you’re not going to continue with the pregnancy.”

“That’s not going to happen, Monica!”

Stiles spun toward the loud female voice coming from his left. He saw Cora running out of the woods. A moment later he noticed Cade, Derek’s dad, Talia, Laura and Isaac were right behind her. For the first time since he saw Monica, Stiles felt safe.

Cora was faster than all her family members and came to stand in between Stiles and Monica within seconds. “You need to leave, right fucking now!” Cora roared.

Monica laughed. “What? Don’t tell me that you actually think I’d care enough to lay a finger on that little shit.”

“Monica, please don’t do this,” Laura said, unlike Cora, she hadn’t shifted to her beta form. “Stiles didn’t do this to hurt you or to break up your relationship with my brother.”

“I told you that I talked to Stiles last night,” Talia said, coming to stand beside Monica. “I also asked you to leave him alone. He’s a part of Derek’s pack now and you must know that if you threaten him, by law we can…”

“Officially he isn’t pack,” Monica refuted the claim. “Where is Derek, anyway? Why isn’t he here defending his pregnant bitch?”

Cora growled loudly and moved toward Monica, but Isaac caught her arm. “It’s okay, babe.” He gave Stiles a tiny smile. “Stiles may not have officially accepted his role in our pack, but his child is our Alpha’s child and that means that if you’re threatening our Alpha’s child…”

“I wasn’t serious,” Monica scoffed and walked backward toward the driver side door to her car. “He asked me a question and I simply made a suggestion.”

“Please, Monica,” Cade said, his voice soothing. “We’re all upset about what happened, but you must realize this is your choice. This is what you want, not Derek.”

“Just like always,” Cora said. “Not once have you have ever done anything he’s wanted.”

“I agreed to marry him!” Monica yelled back.

Laura gasped. “Monica, are you saying that you didn’t want to marry him?”

“Not yet, I wasn’t ready, but I was given no choice!” Monica declared. “Either I agreed to his ultimatums or I’d lose him!”

“Now you have,” Laura told her, angrily. “And I’m not sure why you’re so upset if you didn’t really want to be with him. Derek waited so long for you!”

“Longer than anyone should have to,” Talia said evenly.

“So now all of this is my fault?” Monica asked the Hales, not sparing a glance at Stiles and he was grateful for that. “You’re all blaming me for Derek fucking…”

“He never would’ve done that if you hadn’t broken up with him for the millionth fucking time!” Cora yelled. “For god sakes, grow up and act like a fucking Alpha!”

“Oh, I’m really going to take advice on that from an Omega,” Monica said, opening her car door. She looked at Laura with a sad expression. “I hoped that because we’ve known each other for so long that we might have been able to stay in contact, but obviously that can’t happen. All you care about now is the little bastard that kid is claiming Derek fathered.”

Stiles sunk against the side of the Jeep as he took in the implication. “This isn’t… I’d never, not ever…”

“We know,” Isaac said, standing close and blocking his view of Monica as the werewolf slammed her car door shut and started the car engine. When she drove off, Isaac spoke frankly, “She’s a bitch and she’s probably angrier with herself than you or Derek. She’s just too stubborn to understand that fact yet.”

“I need to get to work,” Stiles said, though he felt like doing nothing of the sort. He wanted to go back inside, curl up under his covers and hide from life.

“I’ll go with you,” Isaac told him.

“Huh?” Stiles was confused.

Cade walked over to Stiles and put his hand on his shoulder. “Let Isaac drive you, okay? He’ll keep an eye on you until Derek gets off his shift at two.”

“But…” Stiles wanted to protest, but really he didn’t want to be alone just yet and Danny wouldn’t be at work until his classes finished at two. “Okay.”

“You’ll need to call Derek and tell him about this,” Talia said in a tone that appeared to be a suggestion, but Stiles knew it wasn’t one.

“I’m sure that will go over so well,” Laura snarked.

“Not yet,” Stiles said firmly. “I’ll wait until after his shift. I don’t want him to feel any worse than he probably already does while trying to keep it together at work today.”

“You’re a good, kid,” Cade told him, squeezing his shoulder once before stepping back. “Cora, Laura, we need to head back home and try to explain our sudden departure to anyone who did happen to see it.”

Stiles winced. “Does everyone in the big pack know about my pregnancy?” Laura hadn’t been on the list of people Derek planned to tell, but obviously she knew. He supposed with Monica so angry, it wasn’t easy to keep the news contained.

“Just us,” Talia assured him. “Most of the pack living close to the house was too busy getting ready for work to notice that we dropped everything and ran after Cora and Isaac.”

“We were going for our morning run when we heard you both,” Cora explained. “So, I texted my mom.”

“Thanks for coming to my rescue,” Stiles said genuinely. “I don’t suppose you’d want to do it again by explaining what happened to my mom so that I don’t have to?”

Cora gave Stiles a one armed hug. “I guess I can,” she agreed. “But don’t think there will be anything I can do to stop her from leaving the shop to check on you if she needs to.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Stiles told her. “And thank you. I appreciate you all coming. I wasn’t sure if she’d hurt me…”

“Before her crazy episode I would’ve said no,” Laura told him. “But she’s been a ranting mess since Derek told her the news last night. I think she got the message though and I bet she’ll be leaving town again.”

Isaac bent down and picked up the set of car keys that Stiles hadn’t even noticed he’d dropped onto the gravel driveway. “You ready to go, Stiles?”

“Yes,” Stiles said. “I’m ready for some normalcy.”

“Take this from someone who knows.” Isaac patted Stiles’ back and chuckled, “You’re a part of the Hale pack now, your life will never be normal again.”

TBC


	7. "Reaching Out"

**Gravidity  
Chapter Six: “Reaching Out”**

_…you have confirmed that connection is real between you and your partner! Do not be scared! Now is the time to embrace your feelings and allow yourself the pleasure of falling in love!_ ~Excerpt from Derek’s Relationship Self-Help Book

**Friday, January 24, 2020**

Stiles needed some space. Between the Hales and his parents, he hadn’t spent a moment alone. After Cora told his mother about what went down with Monica, his mom insisted on spending the night at his house. Derek said that because Danny was human, he wasn’t adequate protection from Monica. They hadn’t heard from her, nor could anyone in the pack track down her whereabouts in Beacon Hills. 

Stiles was glad to have Isaac around that first day, and then Derek and his mother, but he needed to have some time alone wherein he wasn’t worried about werewolf senses. He appreciated that their protective instincts were on high alert, but the constant hovering was just too much. He couldn’t think about all the things he desperately needed to work out in his head, because every single emotion he felt was broadcasted and then asked about. He actually wouldn’t mind if he could be alone with Derek, they really needed to get to know one another, but with Derek usually came another Hale, or they were at Silver Linings where he was busy working.

“Hey, Dad,” Stiles greeted and waved a paper bag containing food from the deli across the street. He hoped that bribing his father with a delicious lunch might convince him to help get his mother back home where she belonged.

His father looked surprised to see him and dropped the pen he’d had hovering over some paperwork on his desk. “You’re bringing me food?”

“Yeah,” Stiles said. “I talked to Margret, she said it was okay if I came back.”

“Of course!” Sam waved Stiles inside. “Shut the door behind you so we’re not disturbed, there are some things I need to talk to you about.”

Stiles nodded and did as asked. Before he decided to take a break from Silver Linings and walk down to the Sheriff Station, he realized that this would be the first time he’d have an opportunity to speak to his father alone since the pregnancy confession. This was how their relationship worked whenever they fought or said things they shouldn’t. Usually they’d think about things for a few days and then one of them would initiate contact and they’d have a mature, frank discussion. “Yeah, there’s quite a bit we need to talk about.”

“Is that pastrami I smell?” his father asked, giving a longing look at the bag in Stiles’ hand.

“Yup.” Stiles sat down in a chair and shimmied it up to the side of the desk. He then procured two bottles of water from his jacket pockets and handed one to his dad. “No soda because I splurged on the food calories and fat content.”

“Not objecting,” his dad assured, grinning.

Stiles opened the bag and handed his father his sandwich and chips and then took out his own food. He’d gotten himself a hot ham and cheese, piled high with greens and black olives. Usually he’d have asked for various flavors of peppers and onions, too, but he knew from Allison that they could give you heartburn, which acted up during pregnancy.

“Thank you for this,” his dad said. He unwrapped his pastrami on rye and took a near jaw-breaking bite.

Stiles ate a few bites of his own meal before he asked, “What was it that you wanted to talk about?”

Sam wiped his mouth free of mustard on a napkin and looked at Stiles fondly. “I know the other day we were doing a little better by the time you and Derek left, but I wanted to talk to you about my immediate reaction. The things I said… what I said about you…”

“That I’m a home-wrecker,” Stiles supplied. Even if it was unintentional and even though he now knew that Monica was a bitch and didn’t deserve Derek, it was technically true.

“Yeah, that,” his father said, voice filled with remorse. “I never should have said that to you. I’d like to say that if we went back and did it over again I would’ve reacted better, been more supportive and gentle, but you know me, Stiles. I may tell people that you get much of your personality from your mother, but unfortunately, you got some bad things from me. Speaking without thinking while under emotional duress is one of them. As an officer of the law, I do my best not to allow that particular personality trait to see the light of day, and it seems I’m much too lax in letting it invade my personal life.”

Stiles was not sure what to say to that. He hadn’t expected such a thorough introspective confession. He expected an apology, expected for them to talk things out and they would share their feelings, but this was much deeper than he thought his father would ever get.

“You’re going to be a father and I… I don’t ever want to be a bad example of one and I was on Monday.”

Okay, so Stiles was probably going to cry. “Dad, you weren’t…”

“I was,” his father said. “Don’t excuse it or explain it away. I brought it up because it needed to be said, because I want you to know that I’m aware that I was wrong.”

Stiles used his napkin to rub at the tears that rested in the corner of his eyes. “I forgive you,” he told him. “And I appreciate you saying… all that.” He crumpled the recycled paper napkin in his fist and said. “You weren’t wrong about me not be ready to be a father, though. I would’ve liked you not to have said it so harshly, but you weren’t wrong.”

“I never should’ve said it at all,” his dad said, reaching across the desk and patting his hand. “Not one single person on this planet, no matter what tools they have at their disposal or what experience they’ve had with children, not one person is ready to be a parent. I wasn’t ready even after you were born.” He leaned back in his chair and laughed. “Stiles, there are times that I’m still not ready. I’m being completely serious with you. I think there’s a damn good bit of evidence to support that fact within the conversation we’re having now.”

Stiles kept quiet as he pondered what his father said and thought about all of his own reasons, worries and obstacles. They ate in silence for a little while as Stiles got his thoughts together. “I think you’re a great father,” Stiles said, packing up the trash into the discarded bag. “It couldn’t have been easy raising a kid like me…”

“Hold on there, son,” his father cut him off. “What exactly do you mean by ‘a kid like me’?”

Stiles gave his dad an incredulous look. “You know exactly what I mean. I was and still am extremely hyper, stubborn, and I’m terrible at making decisions. My mind wanders from one thing to another and it’s nothing medication can truly fix. It’s why I couldn’t go after a single major in college, it’s why I can’t hold a job and why now that I have a part in an actual real business, all I can think about while I’m there is ‘why am I here?’.”

“I think you’re separating all those parts of yourself when you shouldn’t be and you’re looking at them all as bad traits that make up you, when they’re not bad. All of those things you said, well your mother is better at getting you to recognize this than I am, but I’m going to try.”

Stiles crossed his arms and nodded. “You can try.” He knew what he was like, his father wasn’t going to change his mind, but it would be amusing to see him try.

“Ah, hell,” his father huffed. “You need to be optimistic about all of those things, see what good they’ve brought you. All right?”

Stiles smiled. “Yeah, I can try that.”

“I’m not going to tell you that you should raise your child if you honestly think you can’t. I’d never want to guilt trip you into it, but I want you to know that your mother and I would be very happy to be grandparents. We’d be happy to help you raise the baby, though I know my not so favorite Deputy is adamant about helping you do that, too. You won’t be alone, that’s all I’m gonna say about it until you make your decision.”

“Thanks, Mom’s pretty much said the same thing to me. It helps knowing I can rely on you guys, Derek and the Hales, but I’m still not sure.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve got to get back to SL soon, but I want to ask you for a favor first.”

Sam grinned slyly. “Ah, now I see why I got all that mayo and mustard heaped onto my sandwich.”

“You got chips too,” Stiles reminded.

“And they were baked, not fried, so it doesn’t count as part of your bribe. What do you want?”

“I want you to call Mom and tell her that I’m going to be okay on my own tonight, well from here on out. I haven’t had a moment alone since Tuesday morning and it’s driving me crazy. I appreciated it the first day, but I’m okay. If Monica was going to hurt me, she would’ve done it when we were alone. Plus, I don’t think she’s even in Beacon Hills right now.”

“You think I can convince her to go against her instincts and stop protecting you?”

“Dad, please, do something about it. I don’t want to be mean, but I’m going to have to be mean if she doesn’t go home.”

“What about the Hales? Are you going to tell them to go away too?”

“Yes, but not Derek,” Stiles decided. “Isaac walked me here and he’s probably outside waiting for me now. He’s been hanging out at Silver Linings with me whenever Derek is at work and then when I do see Derek, I’m too busy working or too conscious of Danny being around to really get to know him.”

“All right, I’ll call your mother in a little while,” his dad agreed. “As for the Hales, I can help you out and talk to Cora or…”

“No,” Stiles said. “I’ll talk to Isaac and any of the other Hales that have something to say about me being alone.”

“Okay,” Sam said and stood up. “Now come give me a hug before you head back to work.”

Stiles was happy to be enfolded in the strong embrace of his father. “Thanks for the talk, Dad.”

“Anytime,” his dad said, ruffling his hair. “You call me if you need anything, okay?”

“Will do,” Stiles promised.

~OOOOO~

When Derek heard the details of what Monica suggested to Stiles, he felt a little manic, thinking about the ways he could easily kill her, while also dealing with how devastated he felt knowing that someone he loved had said such cruel things about his unborn child and the person carry it. It was a good thing that he had been in public, and that Stiles had three human customers walk in for an appointment only two minutes later, because it forced him to check his temper. Checking his temper is what he was doing once again because he arrived to Silver Linings expecting to find Isaac protecting Stiles, only to find out that under Stiles’ demand, Isaac had left hours before.

“I told him not to call you,” Stiles explained, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

“I’m his Alpha, he doesn’t take orders from you,” Derek said pointedly.

Stiles shrugged and continued to clean his camera lenses, looking totally relaxed. “If I decide to be formally a part of your pack, I won’t take orders from you.”

Derek wanted to refute that, but he couldn’t. Though he and Stiles wouldn’t have the type of relationship that mates had, Stiles would hold the same type of position. “Your safety and that of my child is the most important thing in the world to me. Danny isn’t even here, Stiles. You were completely alone and anything could have happened.”

“Anything could’ve happened that morning before your family showed up,” Stiles said, calmly placing the lens he cleaned into the case. 

Derek was momentarily distracted by all the lenses. There were a couple that he’d love to try out, but he knew that lenses were sacred to photographers and doubted that Stiles would let him.

“Look, I just really, really, really need some time alone,” Stiles said, getting Derek’s attention. “I understand that you all want to protect me and the baby. I am glad you do and I understand where that need comes from, but I have instincts too and my instinct tells me that Monica is gone and if she wanted to hurt me and the baby she would have. Come on, Derek, you know her better than me, do you really think she’d retaliate and hurt us?”

Derek sighed in resignation. “No, she’s not the physical type. She plays head games.”

“Which is what she was trying to do on Tuesday. She said some shitty things and wanted me to feel as bad as she was.” Stiles held out his camera to him. “You’re practically drooling over it. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

Derek stared at the beautiful piece of equipment in Stiles’ hand. “You serious?”

“Sure, and you’re welcome to try any of the lenses too, just try not to get them dirty, because as you saw, I just cleaned them.”

Derek took the camera and inspected it before turning it on. “Where did you find this? It had to have cost a fortune.”

“Actually it didn’t. I found the camera and the three smallest lenses in the case online. They were part of this popular indie photographer’s estate sale.”

Derek picked up the smallest lens and carefully attached it to the camera. He focused it on Stiles and noticed how soft the lens made everything surrounding Stiles. He took a couple of pictures, making Stiles groan out various protests. “What was the photographer’s name?”

“Lionel Friday,” Stiles answered, shrugging. 

Derek’s quick reflexes that allowed him to catch the camera after his slack hands dropped it. “Oh, shit. I’m so sorry!” He practically pushed the camera into Stiles’ hands. “You just… I mean, Lionel Friday is… He’s amazing and you have one of his cameras and I just took pictures with it and… I’m sorry! I won’t ever touch it again.”

Stiles laughed uproariously and unceremoniously placed the camera onto the table they stood beside. “You’re adorable, Derek Hale.”

Derek flushed with embarrassment. “I’m not adorable.”

“You so totally are,” Stiles said and grinned widely. “I remember that Cora mentioned you did photography as a hobby, which is why she was going to have you do the photos at her wedding if I couldn’t, but I didn’t think you’d know who that is. People rarely know who he is.”

“I used to subscribe to his magazine, but then he stopped that and put everything online. There were too many posts to read through about his personal life, and it was hard to find the ones dedicated purely to his photography.”

“I felt the same way! He got way too into himself on that blog, which obviously didn’t have an editor like the indie-mag did. I’m sure that attitude is what led him to go bankrupt and have to sell so much of his stuff.”

“Probably,” Derek agreed. “I stopped subscribing to the blog two months in.”

“He was damn good though.” Stiles picked up the camera once again and held it out to Derek. “Go wild, dude. If you break it, I can buy another like it. It’s cool because it belonged to him, but I don’t care about it like I do the ten dollar camera my mom bought me for my sixth birthday.”

Derek took a photo of Stiles’ wistful expression. “Is that when you knew that you wanted to be a photographer?”

“I still don’t know if I want to be a photographer,” Stiles said. “I mean, I haven’t really had a muse to do anything creative with it. Not for a long time.”

“What you do here, that’s pretty creative,” Derek said.

“No, not really,” Stiles said, hopping up onto the small table his equipment was on. “Allison makes it look creative, or maybe she’s just happier doing it than I am, but it just feels stale to me. I take pictures with fake props and fake backgrounds and ask people to give me fake expressions. Your sister’s wedding and three office parties are the only ‘field work’ I’ve done since I’ve come aboard Silver Linings. The wedding photos were the only ones that had real emotions expressed in them. I think people are still wary about using us for big stuff because they’re afraid we’ll cancel on them.”

Derek snapped photo after photo of Stiles as they talked and it seemed that Stiles became immune to what Derek was doing. “What is it that you’d prefer to take pictures of? I mean, I saw the work you have up in the gallery area, but is that what you’re passionate about?”

Stiles gave Derek a smile so wide that it seemed to light up his eyes, changing the honey-brown color to pure gold, and it looked almost like he was a werewolf. “Yes, those are all pictures I took at different locations. Unfortunately, they’re all from when I was still in college.”

Derek turned the camera off and placed it back on the table Stiles sat on. “If you’re not busy Sunday morning, I’d like to take you some place really cool to take pictures,” he offered.

Stiles got his cell phone out and started to scroll through it. “Danny is scheduled to open the shop and I don’t have to be here until three o’clock for an appointment with… Oh, Peter, Maria and Simon Hale. They’re coming in for separate photos, family photos and belly photos. Peter is your uncle, right?”

“Yes,” Derek said. “Maria is six months pregnant. Simon is…”

“Just turned three,” Stiles said. “It says that here. Danny must have made the appointment. Shit, does your uncle know I’m pregnant?”

“No, just my parents, my pack and Laura,” Derek said. “Do you want me to tell him and Maria about us?”

“Are you and Peter close?” Stiles asked.

“We used to be,” Derek said. “Maria and Monica didn’t get along so we sort of drifted apart. Not far enough that they don’t use me as a babysitter whenever they can, though.”

“Then I guess you can tell them, too if you want. So, you babysit?” Stiles asked.

“Yeah,” Derek said. “Everybody in the pack knows how to babysit by the time they’re five.”

Stiles laughed. “Don’t five year-olds still need looking after?”

“Of course,” Derek told him. “But there’s always been so many little ones born that you learn how to take care of others really young.” Derek heard Stiles’ stomach rumble and saw the younger man’s cheeks go pink. “I know you said you want some time alone, but you sound hungry and so am I. Would you want to go get something to eat when you’re done here?”

Stiles looked thoughtful and then nodded. “Really, I do want some time to myself, but I also wanted some time with it just being us.”

“Me too,” Derek admitted.

“How about you meet me at my house at six? I’ll pick up a couple of pizzas on my way home.”

“What about your mom? Isn’t she staying with you?”

“Nope,” Stiles said. “My dad talked to her on my behalf and I talked to her, too. She understands and to ease her mind I will text her and let her know you’ll be there.”

“I want you to know that it goes against all my instincts to leave you here alone,” Derek informed him.

“It kind of goes against my instincts too, but it has nothing to do with Monica. I’ve just really liked it when you have been around and you’re always giving off these vibes that just… I don’t know, they just make me feel really good.”

“What?” He knew that the further along Stiles got in the pregnancy, the more he’d want to be around the pack, around him, but this was different.

“Yeah, I asked Isaac about it,” Stiles admitted. “I’ve been asking him about a lot of pack and werewolf stuff. I realize that by extension I’m a part of your pack, but I guess I’m actually starting to physically feel that connection, though he swears to me it isn’t possible this early in the pregnancy. I really do though. Earlier, before you came inside, I was busy and didn’t even notice the time, but I felt you were close and a few minutes later you were here.”

Derek was glad Stiles couldn’t hear his heartbeat because he felt like it was beating so fast he might have a heart attack. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer, but I’d really like it if you did.”

“Shoot,” Stiles replied.

“It’s about the other day at your parents’ house, but sort of related to the instinct thing you’re feeling,” he explained. “When we were projecting, did the exchange between us feel different to you, as in more intense and also easier than it has ever felt between us before?”

Stiles’ eyes forehead crinkled and he looked apprehensive. “Why? Is this bad?”

“No, it isn’t bad,” Derek said. He couldn’t explain why until he was sure about it and even then, neither of them was ready for what it possibly meant. He carefully chose his words, “It’s been known to happen between pregnant Omegas and the father of their child.”

Stiles relaxed and sighed. “Oh, well yeah, it did feel different. It’s always felt a little easier and stronger with you. I felt your emotions as strongly as if they were my own and when we touched, whatever I wanted you to feel, or whatever I wanted to feel from you was achieved in seconds. Given the situation we were in, I know it couldn’t last very long, but if we practiced I bet it could. A long time ago I had issues with controlling my Omega traits, so I was worried that maybe something was wrong with me.”

“No,” Derek assured, trying to keep his tone normal. “Nothing is wrong, just don’t be surprised if it gets even stronger and easier, that’s normal.”

“Cool.” Stiles slid off the table as he tapped on his phone. “I have a client coming in five minutes, got to get ready for them.”

“Okay,” Derek said. “I’ll be at your house at six.” With one last nod of confirmation from Stiles, Derek fled the building and practically ran to his vehicle.

As soon as he hit a mostly deserted area of highway, he pulled the car over. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! We could be mates!”

~OOOOO~

**Saturday, January 25, 2020**

Stiles was lying on his side next to Allison in her bed, resting his palm over her big belly and feeling the baby inside kick. “I’ve missed you.”

Allison laughed. “Did you miss both of us?”

Stiles looked up at her and smiled. “You have no idea.” Avoiding Allison and Scott for an entire week was torturous.

“You’ve been avoiding me, Stiles,” she said sadly. “I know you’ve been busy at SL, but we can usually count on you coming by Sundays, if not at least to spend time with me during the week. Scott is going crazy having you home, but still hardly ever seeing you. Sunday you didn’t even call to talk to him and say you weren’t coming for dinner and the text message you sent me was really odd. What’s going on with you and don’t say nothing.”

Stiles barely recalled the message he sent her. He’d been in such a daze after finding out he was pregnant. “There is something going on with me, but I’m not ready to talk about it.” He sat up completely, sitting cross-legged. “Is that okay?”

Allison reached out and took Stiles’ hand. “Yeah, I’m just glad you’re here now. Do you think you’ll come by tomorrow for our previously unspoken dinner date?”

Stiles really wanted to and if Scott weren’t a werewolf who could smell his pregnancy, he’d jump at the chance and make Derek come with him. “Sorry, I already have plans.”

He and Derek had a really good time last night. When Derek first arrived, he seemed shifty and nervous, but after a little while he opened up. They spent hours talking about everything under the sun. It turned out that they actually had a lot of common interests and Stiles shared some of his personal photo albums with Derek. Derek always had really thoughtful things to say, gave his honest opinion and didn’t seem to just be humoring Stiles as he asked to look at more and more. Stiles made Derek promise to show him his pictures and though Derek seemed a little embarrassed at the prospect, he agreed to. This was contingent on Stiles going with him to Cora and Isaac’s house for their weekly pack dinner.

“Oh. My. God!” Allison said excitedly. “You have a date! Who is it with? Is it that guy you said hit on you two weeks ago, the one who booked a consultation just so he could stare at you?”

“What? Oh, god no and I don’t have a date. It’s just dinner plans.”

“I don’t buy it,” Allison said, grinning evilly. 

“Seriously, it isn’t a date. Cora and Isaac invited me over to dinner, sort of as a thank you for taking the most amazing pictures of their wedding.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Allison said holding up her hands. “I know what happens on Sundays at Cora and Isaac’s house. That’s pack dinner night.” She gave him a wide-eyed scared look. “Stiles, are they setting you up with a Hale?”

“No way,” Stiles told her. “It’s just going to be us and…”

“Derek,” Allison filled in, shaking her head. “Stiles, I didn’t say anything because obviously it wasn’t something you wanted to talk about, but I’m going to say something now.”

Stiles felt all the blood rush from his head and seemed to settle like a led weight in his stomach region. “What?” he squeaked.

“Danny mentioned to me, by total accident for the record, that he thought you may have slept with Derek at Cora’s wedding.”

“Wha…Huh, why would you thi… Omf!” Cue Stiles flailing so much that he actually fell off the bed. It was a good thing there was no furniture in the immediate vicinity of the bed or he would’ve cracked his head open. 

“I’ll take that as an affirmative,” Allison said, rolling her eyes at him as he crawled back onto the mattress.

“It was only a one-time thing, which I am perfectly fine with and then he got back together with his girlfriend.”

Allison nodded slowly. “His girlfriend whom you did not mention is a part of the dinner tomorrow?”

Stiles kind of wished he could’ve knocked himself out, which would have at least got him away from Allison’s judging stare. “They broke up.”

“But you know they’ll get back together,” Allison said gently. “Stiles, they always get back together. I can’t believe Cora would try to set you up with him when she knows this.”

“It isn’t a set-up or a date of any kind, I told you that,” Stiles insisted. “But, for your information and this is an absolute secrecy type of thing, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I know for a fact that Derek and Monica are absolutely not getting back together.”

The sound of a love song rock ballad began to blare form Allison’s cell phone. “Oh, it’s Scott!”

Stiles got his own phone out to check his messages and saw he had a new one from Derek.

**Your father called me in for desk duty. If you feel like visiting, because I’m sure that will make his foul mood go away, I would be grateful.**

Stiles was about to text him back and apologize, to say he couldn’t rescue him, but his ears picked up on what Allison was saying to Scott.

“…here right now. I’m glad he’s letting you come home early, babe. Yeah, Stiles misses you…”

Stiles jerked off the bed and shot a quick reply to Derek. **Will do.**

“…Love you, too.”

The second she had her phone closed, Stiles leaned in and kissed Allison’s cheek. “I’ve got to go, there’s something going on at the station and my dad needs some help.”

“No!” Allison protested, grabbing his hand. “Scott’s getting off early! He should be here in like five minutes.”

All the more reason that Stiles needed to get the fuck out of there immediately! He found his slip-on Vans and shoved them on, grateful that he hadn’t decided to wear his tall Chucks. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I promise to come over soon and I’ll text you both. It just sounded pretty urgent and my dad like never asks me for help so I really need to go.”

Allison looked like he’d just broken her heart and she started to get out of the bed. “Well I’ll walk you out…”

“No, no, stay there, I’m good,” Stiles told her, pulling his jacket on. “I’ll call you, okay? Text you, I mean. Soon.” He didn’t give Allison time to reply, he ran as fast as he could out of her room, down the hall and to his car. As he took the back way out of Scott and Allison’s neighborhood, turning off their street, in his rear-view mirror he saw Scott’s car pulling onto his street. For a moment he wondered if Scott would notice and try to flag him down, but after a couple more turns it looked like that wasn’t going to happen. 

Halfway to the station, the relief he felt because he’d made it past Scott changed to resigned sadness. He loved his best friends as if they were family, but there were so many reasons why he couldn’t tell them about his pregnancy. He just hoped they’d understand and forgive him for it later.

TBC


	8. "And So it Begins"

**Gravidity  
Chapter Seven “And So It Begins”**

_Every story has an end, but in life every end is just a new beginning._ ~Allison Jacobs (for Uptown Girls)

**Sunday, January 26, 2020**

“I can’t believe you woke me up before dawn,” Stiles complained. “That is so not okay.”

Derek laughed and continued to lead Stiles through the path in the forest. “I find it funny that what you have a problem with isn’t being blindfolded, or the fact that you have no idea where we are, but the fact that you’re awake before sunrise.”

“It wouldn’t be such a problem if I didn’t wake up at two A fucking M, with my first case of ‘morning sickness’.”

“Sorry about that,” Derek said, and he really was. He wanted to do whatever he could to make Stiles’ pregnancy as easy as it could be. There was very little he could do to help Stiles when he was sick in the middle of the night.

“Do you know if your mother had a lot of morning sickness when she was pregnant with you?” Stiles asked.

Though Derek had talked about his involvement with his family and other family members, he steered clear of talking much about his mom. Even if she’d protected Stiles when Monica had showed up at his house, Derek couldn’t easily forget or forgive her for harassing Stiles. Stiles seemed uneasy whenever Derek mentioned her directly, and though he told Derek that he wasn’t angry with her, that he understood her motivations for confronting him, it was obvious that it would be a long time before he’d trust her.

This was the first time Stiles had inquired about his mother in a way that wasn’t directly related to the pack or to pack policies. He thought back to his mother’s most recent pregnancy. “Merrick is my younger brother, he’s almost fifteen, so her last pregnancy was quite a while ago. I don’t remember if she was sick a lot or not.”

“Whoa, dude! Hold the phone a second.” Stiles dropped Derek’s hands and put them on his hips. “Your parents named their kids, Laura, Cora, Derrick and Merrick! How have I not realized this until right now?”

Derek chuckled and took Stiles hands again, pulling him along. “Yeah, it’s pretty terrible. You’ve forgotten my youngest sister’s name is Abigail Hale.”

“Oh shit,” Stiles giggled. “But you guys call her Abby, don’t you?”

“Oh, that’s been an issue lately. Now that she thinks she’s a mature teenager, she has requested that we refer to her as Abigail, because she believes Abby is childish.”

“Whatever floats her boat,” Stiles mused. “But hey, how is that Mathew got so lucky with his name not rhyming with anyone’s? Or did you guys call him Matty, so it’d be like Matty and Abby or…”

“No, my mother isn’t that ridiculous. My paternal grandfather, Mathew died a day before he was born,” Derek said. “So, maybe he’s not too lucky since he’s named after a grandfather he never knew.”

“I know what that’s like,” Stiles mumbled.

“Plus, his middle name not only rhymes with me and Merrick’s first names, but it’s quite possibly one of the worst names ever.”

“Oooh, Stiles said happily. Though the blindfold covered his eyes, which Derek was sure were sparkling with mischief, it didn’t hide his waggling eyebrows. “Tell me what it is! Is it something like… um, let me guess, it can’t be Eric because that’s a common regular name.”

“No, it’s not Eric,” Derek said. “You’re way off.”

“Okay, how about Carrick?”

“I don’t even think that’s a name,” Derek said.

“Actually, I’m pretty sure it is,” Stiles countered. “Okay, so not Carrick or Eric. Hmm… Let’s see, is it Terek?”

“Nope.”

“Jerek?”

“Hah, no, and I’m positive that isn’t a name.”

“It sounds like jerk and Derek put together, so you’d better be nice to me or it will become a name,” Stiles threatened joyfully.

“Okay, keep guessing.”

“How about Barrack? Or Cleric?”

“Nah, but you were sort of close, think hippie. Mathew always complains that it’s what a hippie would name their child.”

“Hippie, hmm. What about Zerick?”

“Zerick? How is that a hippie name?” Derek asked. Stiles’ mind was a very weird place, he was learning.

“Hippies are always naming their kids with Z names,” Stiles insisted.

“They are?” Derek couldn’t think of one hippie name that started with a Z.

“Yeah, like Zebulon, Zephyr, Zachariah, Zenith, Zenon, Zena, Zellar…”

“Zellar, seriously? I think you’ve made that one up,” Derek said.

“I so didn’t, I saw it in the ‘so you think you’re gonna give your kid a cool name’ section in the baby names book I downloaded last night. Whenever you finish leading me to whatever magical place you’re planning to take me, I’ll get my phone out and show you that it’s a real name.”

Derek stopped walking, needing a minute to process what Stiles had just said. Stiles had been looking up baby names, names for a baby he wasn’t sure he wanted to raise? That didn’t make any sense.

“Are we there?” Stiles asked, impatiently. “Why did you stop? Can I take this off?” One of his long fingers snaked under the band of the blindfold.

Derek moved his hand away from the fabric. “No, we’re not there, I just thought I saw a snake, but it wasn’t a snake,” he lied.

“I’m not sure if you’re lying because you think I’m afraid of snakes and there really is a snake, or if it’s because it wasn’t a snake and was something worse.”

Derek grasped both of Stiles’ hands in his own and squeezed them. “It wasn’t a snake, I promise. Anything else that would be in this forest is not going to come near a werewolf, so you don’t have to worry. Keep guessing.”

“I can’t, man. I’m all guessed out of rhyming Derek names. Give me a better clue than ‘hippie’, cause that just derailed my brain completely.”

“Okay, but you’d better get it after this, otherwise I’m not going to tell you,” Derek said.

“Okay,” Stiles said. “This better be a damn good clue.”

“It is, but first I need to get you down this hill. It’d be a lot easier if you just hopped onto my back. Will you let me carry you?”

Stiles scoffed. “It’d be a lot easier if you’d let me see, even if it’s still a little dark, there’s got to be some of that dusky kind of light in the sky. I won’t brain myself and I can keep holding your hand just in case. And hey, it’s not like I have any idea where we are, I couldn’t get myself out of here or back here, which should go a long way in showing you how much I trust you.” Stiles grumbled. “Alternatively, it may go a long way in showing you how stupid I am, but I’ll have you know that if I didn’t know you’d want to protect your baby at all costs, I wouldn’t have allowed this excursion.”

Derek laughed and took Stiles’ face in his hands. “I suppose you’re right, you trust me, so even if you do remember where my sacred spot is, I’m gonna trust you not to tell anyone about it.”

“You have a deal,” Stiles said.

Derek slipped his fingers underneath the blindfold and pulled it off Stiles’ head. Dawn was beginning to find its way into the horizon, but they were still covered by a canopy of trees, so the light didn’t have too much of an effect on where they were standing. “You all right?” he asked, watching Stiles as his eyes adjusted to the small amount of light around them.

“Yeah,” Stiles said and spun in a slow circle.

“And you’re sure that you’re not cold?” Derek asked.

“I’m fine, your hands were keeping me pretty warm,” Stiles told him and reached out to take one of Derek’s. “Plus, you insisted that I wear like five layers of clothing, even though we’re experiencing an Indian Winter right now.”

Derek shook his head in exasperation. “Come on, you can see the ground, right?”

“Yes, I’m good for about five feet.”

“That’s enough.” Derek led Stiles to the small hill that led down to a beautiful glen, a cave and a sparkling c-shaped lake. If it were twenty minutes later, Stiles would be able to see it all from where they stood, but as for now it would remain a surprise. “Be careful stepping down, the grass is slick because of the frost. If you feel like you’re sliding, let yourself slide into me and I’ll catch you.”

“Okay,” Stiles said. “If I break a bone, you must take care of me.”

“I plan on doing that even though you won’t break a thing,” Derek found himself saying. It was perhaps a little too intimate of a confession, but he had been unable to stop himself. After the realization he’d made on Friday, he’d rapidly come to accept the fact that there was nothing he could do about what he’d learned. 

If Fate was a real thing, and he and Stiles were meant to be mates, with time a romantic relationship would develop. He was well aware of the consequences that befell someone who pushed for more in a relationship than their partner was willing to offer. Not that he felt like he could ever push Stiles into doing anything he didn’t want. Still, it was pointless to bring up his discovery so soon. Stiles didn’t want a romantic relationship with him or anyone else, he’d told Derek this many times. Even if Stiles told him right that moment that he did want to be with him, Derek couldn’t imagine starting a relationship with Stiles while he was still reeling from his break-up with Monica. 

The biggest and most important reason for him to keep the possible discovery a secret was because it was what was best for their baby. Thanks to how fucked up Monica was due to her parent’s relationship, Derek knew, and some might disagree, but he knew that nobody should ever get married just because of an unplanned pregnancy. Those types of relationships rarely worked out and stopped the parents from building a friendship together that would benefit the child much more than seeing his parents in a binding romantic relationship. Worse, if they forced themselves to stay together, after knowing they weren’t good together, all for the supposed sake of their child, it would potentially ruin their child’s life as well as their own. Derek didn’t want that for their baby and he knew Stiles didn’t want that either.

“So the clue?” Stiles asked as they descended the hill.

“Oh, right.” He’d nearly forgotten what they’d been talking about. “It has to do with music.”

“And it rhymes with your name?” Stiles asked for confirmation.

“Yes.”

“Oh dude, you’ve got to be kidding me right now. No, no way would your mom, big, scary Prime Alpha of the Northwestern California Territories, actually name their child that!”

“She did and keep in mind that it was going to be Mathew’s first name,” Derek said, snickering. Derek’s middle name was Linus, which was pretty bad, but he’d take it over Mathew’s middle name any day.

“But Lyric, really?” Stiles asked, disbelief in his tone. “Your joking with me, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not kidding,” Derek said. “While she was pregnant, the story is that Mathew would kick to a beat whenever my mom would sing to him. Because she didn’t if he was a boy or a girl, she thought Lyric was an appropriate unisex name.”

“Wow, it makes me shudder to think of what your middle name might be,” Stiles said teasingly.

“It’s not too bad, but it’s also not pleasant. If I tell you, will you tell me your first name?” Derek asked.

“No freaking way,” Stiles said. “Maybe one day, but I can guarantee you that my first name is far more laughable than the name Lyric, or any name you’re probably imagining right now.”

Derek stopped them just before the hill became the flat plane of grass that expanded into the glen. “We’re here. Let me just get the blanket and supplies out of the backpack and I’ll help you sit down.”

Stiles looked exasperated. “Derek, it’s not like I have a big huge baby belly, I can actually sit down on my own and I can even help you spread the blanket out.”

“You’re right, I just thought you might not wanna kneel in the grass because you’ll get wet and cold.”

“What about you?” Stiles asked.

“My body heat will dry any dampness I get on my clothing within a matter of minutes,” Derek reminded him, taking out the plastic-backed blanket from his hiking backpack. He spread it out on the ground and then held his hand out to help Stiles sit. 

“You’re ridiculous,” Stiles said, but sounded fond. “You have me curious about this place, tell me what it is, what I’m waiting to see, besides the sunrise of course.”

“I can’t, it’s got to be a surprise to you, it was to me,” Derek told him and unpacked their camera gear so it’d be ready. “I accidently found this place.”

“Really? When?”

“It was after my first girlfriend broke up with me, it was a really long time ago.”

“You’ve had a girlfriend besides, Monica?” Stiles asked, surprised.

“Yes, Paige. She was human and her family was extremely strict, so if we wanted to meet alone and not have my family as a werewolf audience, we had to sneak around.”

“And you met here?” Stiles asked, obviously uncomfortable with the idea.

“No, I said I found this place after we broke up, remember?”

“Oh, right. Go on.” Stiles leaned back so he was propped up on his elbows, looking intently at Derek.

“Paige’s parents didn’t want her dating anyone, until she was sixteen, especially a werewolf. We were only fourteen, when we met. They didn’t hate werewolves exactly, but they weren’t very friendly with me even when they thought we were only friends. Paige and I decided to keep our relationship a secret from them and I was so besotted with her, I wanted to be with her all the time and she wanted to be with me the same. It was a thrill sneaking around behind her parent’s backs. My family loved her from the first time they met her, she flawlessly fit in with us. It was a really intense relationship from beginning to end.”

“How did it end, if you don’t mind telling me,” Stiles said.

“I started playing basketball at school and she started playing her cello at various school related functions, our class schedules were completely different and so was our free time. It got harder and harder to make up excuses to her parents about where she was going when we wanted to be alone. A week before the breakup, we got our signals crossed and I didn’t meet her at the time she thought I was supposed to meet her. I didn’t even answer any of her calls because I didn’t think I had anywhere to be after basketball practice and fell asleep.”

“Eek, so she was upset you didn’t show?”

“More than, because she waited a really long time for me and by the time she went home, it was past curfew and her parents laid into her hard. They found out she hadn’t been at another friend’s house like she told them and they eventually got her to tell them the truth about us being together. They grounded her and forbid her from seeing me, but at school they really couldn’t keep us apart. She forgave me pretty easily when she realized that we both thought we were meeting at different times. Then, a couple of weeks later, she decided she’d had enough of being stuck in the house and asked me to meet her that night. Her parents both worked the midnight shifts at their jobs, so we planned to meet after that. I knew where I was supposed to meet her and I knew it was going to be our only chance to be alone together for a while.”

“Sounds very Romeo and Juliet,” Stiles commented, and rubbed his hand up and down Derek’s back comfortingly. “Did she get caught again?”

“No,” Derek whispered. It had been a long time since he had thought about what happened, and he knew that he’d never talked about it so thoroughly with anyone. There was just something about Stiles that made it easier for him to open up. “Do you know that old abandon grain farm, with the big pole barn on the hill?”

“Yeah, I know it,” Stiles said. “Some kids threw a rave their when I was in high school.”

“That was our secret spot back then. While Paige was walking there, she got hit by a car.” Derek felt emotional retelling the story, but Stiles had been putting off comforting vibes, so for the first time thinking about it didn’t make him fall apart. “The impact knocked her out and there was another accident that night…” Derek knew it was the accident that Stiles’ mother had been in, but he wasn’t going to add that detail. “So most of the law enforcement was rightly concerned with it, it might have involved the same person who hit Paige, but nobody could ever be sure. I’d fallen asleep again, didn’t wake up to my alarm and it wasn’t until the next day that I learned what happened to her.”

“What happened exactly?”

“As I said, Paige’s parents were at work, so they didn’t know she was missing and most of the deputies were busy with the other accident. Nobody was looking for her and I was asleep in my bed, so I…” Derek took a deep steadying breath. “I wasn’t… I didn’t even know she was hurt. A farmer driving into town the next morning saw her lying in a ditch.”

“Jesus, Derek,” Stiles croaked and took his hand. “I’m so sorry.”

“She was practically dead when they brought her into the hospital, not because of her injuries, but because of hypothermia. Eventually she was stabilized; she got surgery on her shattered pelvis, had a broken arm, leg, and was comatose. It took a week for her to wake up and her parents wouldn’t allow me to go near her the whole time. When she did wake up, she called me and told me things were over with us. I never saw her again. Her parents transferred her to a private school in Dunlop, and I blamed myself.”

“Derek, that wasn’t your fault, it was the driver…”

“If I wouldn’t have fallen asleep, if I’d gone out there and met her like I was supposed to, I would’ve realized something was wrong. She wouldn’t have been in a ditch for hours; she would’ve gotten help much sooner. I was a freaking mess and I couldn’t stand to even be around my family because they were always trying to cheer me up. That’s when I started running alone in the woods, going farther and farther each time. It was like I couldn’t run enough, until one morning, right at dawn, I found this place.”

“It’s very peaceful,” Stiles said, looking forward, though Derek knew he couldn’t see much at all because everything below them was covered in a layer of fog.

“Just a few more minutes and you’ll see how beautiful it is, too,” Derek promised.

~OOOOO~

Stiles hadn’t thought that his day would begin with Derek sharing a story about his past that was so personal. That made him eager for the sun to rise, he wanted to see the beauty that had affected Derek so long ago, a piece of nature that he kept a secret for so long. As excited as he was for the shadows to give way to light, he was felt content sitting in silence beside Derek, letting the anticipation breathe quietly between them. 

When Derek suggested that Stiles bring his camera, Stiles hadn’t thought he’d be all inspired to use it, but he humored him and allowed Derek to pack his camera. As the first pink sunrays broke over the horizon, it cast an ethereal beam through the fog and illuminated a field of purple, white and orange wildflowers. If it weren’t for the sound of Derek’s adjusting his camera, Stiles would’ve been too entranced by the sight to think of taking his own pictures. The sky changed colors, the sun rose higher and the fog disappeared, revealing a large clear lake with a cave of boulders at one end and more wildflowers, plants and shrubs running around the shore. The tall old trees surrounding the glen, along with the rising light, made everything he could see change within moments. It was a beautiful display of nature waking up.

Stiles felt as though every bit of creativity he missed and yearned for was rapidly injected back into his blood stream. He roamed around the glen and hills, explored new vantage points, each one better than the last, every image he captured more exciting than the one before. He didn’t stop taking photos for a long, long, time. He waited until his camera started beeping, warning him to change to a new battery. The unnatural sound pulled him out of the bubble he’d been in and he had to turn a couple of times to see exactly how to get back to where Derek was, still sitting on the blanket, camera aimed in his direction.

Stiles felt like a giddy kid as he started up the hill, breathless from the exertion, but more so because of artistic energy zinging through his body. “Are you taking pictures of me?” he asked, though he knew the answer.

Derek didn’t look apologetic at all. “Yup.”

Stiles came to rest right in front of him Derek, casting a shadow on his form. “How could you want to take pictures of me when you have all that beautiful scenery,” he questioned, looking over his shoulder at the glen, lake and forest.

“Watching you rediscover your love for something that is such a big part of who you are, that was more beautiful than anything else I’ve ever seen here.”

Stiles whipped his head back toward Derek and stared down at him. He could play this sudden bout of breathlessness off on everything else, not say anything in return to Derek’s endearingly sweet comment, pretend like it was a joke, but he didn’t want to do that. He just dropped down beside Derek and laid all the way back on the blanket. “You’re amazing, Derek. Thank you for showing me this, for giving me all of this.”

“You’re welcome. I thought you’d like it, because it isn’t like the normal picturesque landscapes. The cave and boulders have really odd angles, and the trees are bent at weird places, or grow in peculiar directions. It’s all natural, and yet it looks like the moon goddess herself reached down into this glen and twisted everything around.” Derek moved and leaned over him, camera taking another series of pictures of Stiles.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “I agree, but please stop taking pictures of me. You’re going to be so upset when you get those on your computer and see how ridiculous I look in all of them. So many wasted photo ops!” He patted the space next to him. “Come lay down with me and you can take a picture of the both of us, but no more after that.”

“No more pictures today,” Derek amended.

Stiles laughed. “Fine, fine.”

Derek laid beside him, close enough so that the whole lengths of their sides were touching and took three pictures before he placed the camera down on the blanket. “Can I ask you something about the pregnancy, or would you rather me not?”

Stiles stared up at the sky and pondered this, but then remembered what he’d talked about before. “Oh, do you want to see that baby name book I downloaded?”

“No,” Derek said, gruffly. “I mean, not now.”

Stiles turned to lie on his side, propping his head up on his hand as he looked down at Derek. “You were really open with me before, about Paige, and you have been about a lot of other things, too. I really appreciate that, but if you want to dive into all the reasons I think I’d be a bad father, I’d rather enjoy our atmosphere and not talk about that.”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Derek said.

“Okay then. As the baby’s other father, anything else you want to talk about is fine.”

“I was wondering if you’ve made an appointment to see an obstetrician?”

“I did,” Stiles answered, happy with this line of questioning. “I didn’t tell you?” Stiles could’ve sworn that he’d texted Derek about it as soon as he made it, but then he remembered his mother had interrupted him. “Wait, no, sorry I got side-tracked by my mom asking me pregnancy questions and never did. I’m sorry.”

“When is your appointment?” Derek asked. “I’d like to go with you, to any of them that you’ll let me. I talked to your father and he said it won’t be a problem letting me take a break if I am working, long enough to go with you.”

Stiles smiled. “Of course you can come. It’s actually tomorrow morning at nine, so I’m really glad you brought it up. A large gust of wind burst through the glen and Stiles shivered. “Okay, now I’m glad you made me put on so many layers of clothes.”

Derek sat up and looked worried. “We should probably go, then. You’ve been out here for quite a while. I don’t want you to get sick.”

“I’m just fine,” Stiles insisted. Though he was getting a little hungry. “Could we stop at a drive-thru and pick up breakfast?”

“Of course,” Derek said. “Let’s get this stuff packed up and we’ll head back.”

“Derek, wait,” Stiles stopped him with a hand on his arm. “I just… I know that I said it before, but really… Thank you for giving me this experience. I really needed it.”

“I’m glad I could give it to you,” Derek told him. “You’re welcome to come out here anytime, but I’d feel a lot better if you waited for me to come with you.”

“I can do that,” Stiles promised.

~OOOOO~

Stiles was upstairs in his bedroom stripping down to a single layer of clothing while Derek got their breakfasts plated up. They’d stopped by Break Fast, a little hut looking place that served delicious breakfast foods 24/7, and only a drive-thru. Sometimes you had to pull into a parking stall and wait for one of the workers to bring it out, but it was more than worth it. Stiles hadn’t been up for going into a diner, but he also didn’t want to eat fast food. Break Fast’s food was made quickly, but the restaurant used all fresh ingredients and it was by far the tastiest food you could get without having to get out your car.

Stiles sat on the edge of bed, putting his slippers on when he heard Derek frantically yelling his name. Stiles haphazardly shoved his feet into them and raced out of his room. “Derek!” he yelled back.

“Stiles, shit, you… I… I… don’t know what to do!” Derek stood in the foyer, at the bottom of the stairs, holding a newspaper, the front door open behind him. “I can’t believe she’d do this!”

Stiles’ knees weakened as he heard the terror in Derek’s voice and felt it infect him too, but he managed to walk down the staircase without falling. “What, Derek? What happened?”

Derek sucked in a sharp breath as he pushed the crumpled news paper into Stiles’ hands. “I’m sorry.”

Stiles saw that the section Derek had open was the weekly Lifestyle section of the Beacon Hills Times. There were two pictures of him and Derek on the front page under the heading, **ALPHA HALE & OMEGA STILINSKI – PREGNANT!**

_The marriage of Monica Chenoweth to Derek Hale was cancelled last week. Our source tells us that the long-time romance between the two began to fizzle out a couple of months ago due to vastly different opinions on the future of their relationship. During a relationship break from Chenoweth, Hale and Stilinski met and had a one night stand. Only after Monica and Derek resumed their romance did Stiles learn he was pregnant._  
What makes the story so interesting is how secretive the two are trying to be about their budding romance with friends and family. Our source says they’ve told those closest to them that there is only friendship between them. Yet, as you can see from our exclusive photos, Stiles and Derek have a connection that is obviously deeper than friendship.  
Derek Hale is the son of Prime Alpha, Talia Hale and Stiles Stilinski is the son of Beacon County’s Sheriff, Sam Stilinski. Though Stiles’ mother was turned by Talia, the Stilinskis are not a part of her pack. This new baby will join these two prominent Beacon Hills families and will be a joyous addition to their family.  
Times are changing and… 

Stiles couldn’t bring himself to read any more of the article. “This was Monica’s doing,” he stated.

Derek looked ready to fight someone and growled out his agreement, “The writer is a close friend of hers.”

Stiles took a deep breath and tried to think rationally. “Okay, so everyone, like every single person we know is going to find out about this. Including…” And here was where Stiles really couldn’t be calm. “Including Scott and Allison.”

Derek’s anger seemed to melt away, turning to a thick sadness that hung in the air. “Oh, Stiles. I’m so fucking sorry.”

Stiles rubbed his hands over his eyes. “What I don’t get is why she would tell them this crap, but not… Not say worse things.”

“Because this way people won’t think that the source is the bitter ex-fiancé,” Derek surmised. “This way, she doesn’t appear as a victim, or the wronged, but people will still empathize with her. Hell, they’ll probably praise how she’s handled our break-up and your pregnancy, because she’s not acting crazy in public and telling the gossip Queen stuff that will make us look bad. Most of what was written was the truth.”

“Oh my god,” Stiles groaned. “This day was going so well! Why did she have to ruin it?”

“Has she?” Derek asked cautiously. “I mean, I know this is upsetting and we may get some attention from the people who read this crap, but it could be worse.”

“Scott and Allison,” Stiles reminded Derek. “They’re going to hate me.”

“Maybe they haven’t seen the paper,” Derek said. “Hell, it’s still early and it’s a Sunday. Neither one of us have gotten any calls from our friends or family, so it’s possible they haven’t seen it. I think we should go into the kitchen, eat our cold breakfast and then try to do some damage control. Starting with your friends.”

“You’re being really Alpha-y,” Stiles said, leaning into Derek.

Derek wrapped his arm around Stiles’ waist and gave into his instincts and nuzzled Stiles’ neck. “You’re so weird.”

“But you like it,” Stiles said, squirming as Derek huffed against his skin. And Stiles really, really, really liked that. What Derek said was true, the article definitely wasn’t all lies or fabrications.

~OOOOO~

The calls and texts from their family and friends didn’t start coming until Derek and Stiles were in the driveway of Scott and Allison’s home. They both silenced their phones and walked up to the house. Before they made it to the porch Allison was at the door. “Okay, what the hell is going on? Scott just took off running upstairs!”

Stiles looked up at Derek and then back to Allison. “Uh, do you mind if we come inside. That will make sense in just a minute.”

“Fine, but if you tell me that you’re a fucking werewolf now, I will kill you,” she threatened.

“I’m not a werewolf,” Stiles said. “I swear.” He and Derek walked through the house as she led them into the den, waddling just a little due to her large belly.

Stiles felt Derek take his hand and the moment they made contact, Allison turned around to face them, having sensed the connection between them. “Holy shit!” she exclaimed and look down at their joined hands. “You two…”

“How could you not tell us?” Scott’s voice boomed from above. He was standing on the top stair, looking down at them over the banister.

Stiles heard so much from Scott in that one question.

“Tell us what?” Allison asked. “The whole mates issue?”

“The what?” Stiles scoffed and dropped Derek’s hand. “No, Allison, that was just for moral support.”

“Emotional support,” Derek corrected him and took his hand again.

Scott stomped down the stairs, his eyes holding Derek’s with a challenging look, one Stiles knew Derek would’ve reacted to were it anyone else. He was infintately happy that the only thing Derek felt due to Scott’s challenge was remourse.

“Uhm, can you both sit down, please?” Stiles asked Scott and Allison. Hell, he wanted to sit down.

“Just say it,” Scott said. “Just tell her, Stiles. Tell your best friend what I’m sure so many other people in your life already know.”

Allison gave her husband a shocked expression, clearly not used to hearing him talk like that to Stiles. “Scott, that’s enough.”

“Right, right,” Scott huffed.

Derek slipped his arm around Stiles’ waist and asked him, “Do you want me to?”

Scott laughed lowly. “Dude, you have a lot to learn if you think that Stiles wants or needs an Alpha speaking for him. That’s one thing you’re gonna have to learn real quick if you’re going to be around him.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Derek replied in a sarcastic tone.

Before the bickering could go any further, Stiles resolved himself to speak. “Allison, I’m pregnant.”

~OOOOO~

**Monday, January 27, 2020**

“Stiles, wake up,” Derek shook Stiles’ shoulder. “Hey, hey, you’re having a bad dream. You need to wake up.”

Stiles’ body bolted upright in the bed and he looked around the room frantically. His eyes landed on Derek and they went wide. “What… what are you doing here?”

“You asked me to stay the night, remember? I woke up a few minutes ago to the sound of your heart racing. I waited a little bit before coming up here, but then I heard you mumbling my name. I think you were having a nightmare.”

Stiles rubbed at his eyes and asked, “What time is it?”

“A little after two in the morning,” Derek told him, rubbing his fingers up and down Stiles’ forearm soothingly.

“Of course it is,” Stiles huffed and wiggled, causing the newspaper lying on the bed to crinkle.

Derek saw it and sighed. “You shouldn’t have been reading that before you fell asleep. It’s probably why you had a nightmare.” He reached across Stiles to pick it up and saw that his IPad was lying underneath it. He took both and placed them on the nightstand. “Do you need me to get you some water?”

Stiles blinked and shook his head. “I wasn’t having a nightmare.”

“You weren’t?”

“No, and I didn’t read that article right before sleep, I was just looking at our pictures in the paper. Then I started going through all the pictures I took today. I was thinking about a lot of stuff before I fell asleep, but none of it was bad.” He reached out and pulled on Derek’s arm. “Can you… I… I want to talk to you about something.”

“Right now?” Derek asked, scratching the back of his head. “It can’t wait until morning? I’ve got a shift in five hours.”

“Oh,” Stiles sighed and the most pitiful expression Derek had ever seen appeared on his face.

Derek sighed. “It’s all right, I’m on desk-duty filling in for Deputy Brook, I can miss a little sleep. But you need yours if you’re going to make it to your appointment on time. So get to talking.”

Stiles smiled contently and then lifted the covers on the other side of the bed. “Get in with me, first.”

“In the bed?” Derek asked.

“Yeah, if that’s all right,” Stiles said.

In the dark Derek could tell Stiles was blushing and he could feel his anxiety. “Sure.” Derek crawled onto the bed and then got underneath the blanket, turning so that he could lie on his side and face Stiles.

Stiles mirrored his position and slipped his hand into Derek’s. The loop between them thrummed and Stiles let out a sigh of contentment. “Thanks.” 

Derek yawned. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“My dream, actually,” Stiles said, surprising him. “And also what I was thinking about before I fell asleep, which is probably why I dreamt what I did.”

“What was your dream?” Derek wondered.

Stiles moved his free hand form where it had been resting against his chest and moved it down until it was over his flat belly. “I dreamt of us, you, me and our baby. Well, it felt more like a vision, because it was so real, it was the most vivid dream I’ve ever had!”

Derek blinked a couple of times and had to clear his throat before he could reply with something that wouldn’t mess up their friendship. “What about us?”

Stiles’ happiness flowed into Derek and he soaked it up. “We were playing peek-a-boo with the baby. In the dream he’s a boy, I’m not sure how old, but still pretty little and he looks more like my dad did as a baby than he looks like us, but he does have my moles.”

“Beauty marks,” Derek corrected, smiling at the thought of their child having those little dots all over his chubby belly.

“His name is Lennon, but you called him Lenny, and that may be when you heard me saying your name, because in the dream I was yelling at you every time you did it. I said, ‘You’re the one who won the name battle, and you promised we’d never call him Lenny’. Then you kept doing it, over and over just to tease me, and I kept yelling at you about it. But we weren’t really being mean to one another, it was…”

Derek watched in amusement as Stiles’ cheeks flamed redder than ever before and pull his hand away. Though the skin to skin connection was broken, Derek could still feel Stiles’ emotions and he could definitely smell his embarrassment. “It was like we were flirting,” he said.

“Uh… um… yeah I guess so,” Stiles mumbled.

“So what else happened in the dream?” Derek asked.

“I don’t know, you woke me up.”

“Are you mad that I woke you?”

“No, because if you hadn’t I may not have remembered it and I may not have had come to such a clear decision about something.”

“Which is?” Derek prompted.

“If you’re willing to help me, if you think that maybe you can show me what you know about taking care of kids and… and help me be a good dad, then I think that I really want to raise the baby.” Stiles let out a rush of breath that hit Derek right in the face. “With you. I want to raise the baby with you, Derek. If that’s what you want.”

Derek knew that he was grinning like a fool, but it was only Stiles that could see his expression. He inched himself closer to Stiles and then brought the younger man into his arms and held him tight. “That’s exactly what I want,” he said against his ear. It wasn’t everything he thought he wanted from life and it definitely wasn’t the way those stupid books told him things would go, but he didn’t care.

This was the beginning of a new life for them both and they would create the story on their own terms.

The End

(As soon as this story is thoroughly betad and posted after the beta, I will start on the next installment to this series. -Technically I already have started it because it's outlined and some scenes are written, but I won't post it until I've completed it. Thank you for reading.)


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